ATLANTA (AP) — The federal agency investigating last week's deadly crash of a bus carrying a college baseball team has for years sought safety improvements that could have reduced the number of injuries from the accident.
Six people were killed and at least 29 hurt when the driver of the Bluffton University team bus apparently mistook an exit ramp in Atlanta as a regular traffic lane. The bus slammed into a barrier at an intersection and overturned, falling 30 feet onto a highway below.
An Associated Press analysis of National Transportation Safety Board reports shows that as far back as 1999 the agency recommended that more needs to be done, such as adding seat belts or shatterproof windows, to prevent passengers from being thrown out of buses or tossed around inside. At the time, the agency cited the problem as one of its ''most wanted'' safety improvements.
In last week's crash, at least seven of the passengers were thrown from the bus, including all four players who were killed and two survivors who ended up pinned beneath the vehicle. Most of the 29 passengers injured suffered cuts from the vehicle's shattered windows and broken bones and bruises from being thrown about in the crash.
''These kids were like flying missiles,'' said Dr. Jeffrey Salomone of Grady Memorial Hospital , where many passengers were treated. He said the fact the passengers were not restrained contributed to most of the internal injuries.
Many of the injuries could have been avoided or reduced if safety improvements recommended by the NTSB for motor coaches over the years had been implemented, said Jim Hall, chairman of the NTSB from 1994 to 2001.
''You have a laundry list of things that need to be addressed to prevent the needless loss of life like we saw in the Atlanta accident,'' Hall said.
The NTSB's recommendations have not been implemented because federal officials are still studying the proposals, said Rae Tyson, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Federal regulators met in 2002 with motor coach makers and operators, but they could not reach a consensus on how to keep bus windows from shattering in an accident, according to an NTSB report.
Two years later, regulators said they would focus on improving windows rather than requiring seat belts because better windows ''require no action by passengers, yet improve their safety,'' according to the report.
In 2003, the NTSB also recommended school buses and motor coaches carry devices similar to the flight data recorders installed aboard commercial airliners. The devices, which cost about $3,000 each, can show the vehicle's speed and brake and throttle status at the time of an accident.
The baseball team's bus had no recorder, and investigators have declined to say if the vehicle had seat belts.
The bus company involved in the accident — Executive Coach Luxury Travel Inc. of Ottawa , Ohio — has not returned repeated calls seeking comment.
Stephen Campbell, executive director of the Washington-based Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, which represents commercial vehicle enforcement agencies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, said the industry has questioned whether seat belts could make it more difficult for passengers to escape in case of a fire or emergency.
''The overwhelming statistics with regard to seat belts suggest that seat belts would be an enormous expense without a whole lot of benefit,'' he said.
He said black-box style data recorders have not even been resolved for commercial trucks, let alone passenger coaches.
The United Motorcoach Association said the industry has an excellent safety record, with fewer than 10 fatalities a year despite transporting 600 million passengers annually.
''If there's a better way to enhance occupancy protection, we're all for it,'' said Victor Parra, president and CEO of the Alexandria, Va.-based organization.
Parra said the motor coach industry supports working with federal agencies and developing whatever recommendation that is proven effective via crash testing. But government and industry officials have yet to set a timeline on crash testing bus safety improvements.
''Until crash testing determines what are the best options, to try and suggest one change over another without scientific data would be inappropriate,'' Parra said.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which enforces federal highway guidelines on interstate motor coaches based in that state, does not inspect motor carriers for electronic data recorders or seat belts because the federal government doesn't mandate it, said Shana Eiselstein, commission spokeswoman.
Despite the Bluffton University bus wreck, Eiselstein said her agency cannot begin requiring these safety measures because ''we have to follow the federal guidelines.''
Hall said little has been done to improve safety on motor coaches because the division of the Department of Transportation responsible for regulating buses has been underfunded and understaffed and cannot seek the reforms that are common after airline or train disasters.
''Motor coach safety has been an orphan in terms of any type of meaningful safety regulation for decades,'' he said.
Associated Press Writer Giovanna Dell'Orto in Atlanta contributed to this report. |
