The U.S. Department of Transportation has asked Congress to give it greater power to fight unsafe bus companies in the wake of a string of fatal bus accidents.
The DOT wants its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to have greater authority to pursue suspended operators that get licenses to operate under a new name.
It has also asked Congress to approve a new procedure that would allow FMCSA to conduct bus safety inspections at locations such as rest stops, and to require new motorcoach companies to undergo a full safety audit before receiving operating authority.
Additionally, the DOT wants to raise the penalty for operating illegally or without authority from $2,000 a day to $25,000 per violation.
Fatal bus accidents continue even though FMCSA in the past two years has suspended as many unsafe operators with imminent-hazard orders (14) as it did in the previous 10 years.
On May 31, four people were killed and 50 injured when a Sky Express bus overturned on Interstate 95 in Virginia. Immediately after the Sky Express crash, FMCSA issued the Charlotte, N.C.-based company an unsatisfactory rating and forced it out of service for violating multiple safety regulations.
The crash occurred just four days after the DOT announced that it had conducted more than 3,000 surprise bus inspections in May and issued out-of-service citations to 127 drivers and 315 vehicles.
The same day, it also ordered North Carolina-based United Tours to immediately cease all passenger service for its use of unqualified drivers, among other things.
In June, FMCSA ordered Michigan bus operator Haines Tours to immediately cease all passenger service for transporting passengers in the cargo compartment of a bus.
In an accident on Sunday, two passengers were killed when a bus owned by Bedore Tours of North Tonawanda, N.Y., blew a tire crashed on Interstate 390, about 55 miles southeast of Rochester, N.Y.
A preliminary police investigation found no driver violations, according to reports.