By Mary Kerr (202) 225-6260
Reacting to three very serious bus accidents in the past several days, two of which resulted in fatalities, Rep. James L. Oberstar (Minn.), Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, reiterated his contention that more must by done by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to reduce fatalities and injuries involving large trucks and buses.
Last Friday, seventeen people were killed and three dozen others were injured in a motorcoach crash in Sherman, Texas. In a separate incident, four people were killed and at least two dozen were injured in a bus crash on Sunday in Tunica, Mississippi. The third bus crash in three days, which also occurred on Sunday, injured 29 people riding on a casino employee shuttle bus in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has confirmed that the driver in the Texas accident presented investigators with a medical certificate that expired in May, although additional information regarding the date of the driver’s last medical exam is unavailable at this time. The same driver was pulled over for speeding in 2007, and the citation noted that his medical certificate was expired at that time as well, but he was able to continue operating. Currently, having an expired medical certificate – or failing to produce one at all – is not an offense for which a driver can be placed out of service during a roadside inspection.
FMCSA was established by Congress as a separate administration within the Department of Transportation (DOT) on January 1, 2000. The T&I Committee held a hearing on July 24 to assess FMCSA's progress in improving its medical oversight of commercial drivers.
Today, Chairman Oberstar issued the following statement on the recent bus accidents and FMCSA’s oversight:
“Although travel by an over-the-road bus is among the safest forms of transportation, when an accident occurs that tragically and needlessly takes the lives of passengers, it is a stark reminder to us that more must be done to enhance safety on our roads. To have three serious bus accidents – generally a relatively rare occurrence – happen in just a few days should reaffirm our commitment and redouble our efforts to improve motorcoach safety.
“Details from the
Texas crash continue to emerge, but the evidence to date makes one thing clear: the company involved in the crash, Angel Tours, is a rogue, dangerous motorcoach operator with a long history of violating the law and acting with flagrant disregard for the safety of its passengers. Records further show that Angel Tours has repeatedly allowed medically unqualified drivers to operate its buses; in fact, when FMCSA conducted a compliance review of this company in May 2008, two of five drivers sampled were found to have expired medical certificates. While I commend the FMCSA’s subsequent actions related to this company – including declaring the carrier an imminent hazard and forcing it to shut down all operations – I am very concerned that FMCSA’s medical oversight program is too lax.
“At a hearing my Committee held July 24 on the medical qualifications of commercial drivers, I asked FMCSA officials why more hasn’t been done in the past eight years to ensure that commercial driver's license holders are medically fit to drive, and why the agency has failed to implement eight specific recommendations made by the NTSB and several congressional mandates. For example, the NTSB recommended that FMCSA improve its detection of fraudulent medical certificates. Since the medical certificate currently has no standard format, it can be easily reproduced and there is no mechanism for inspectors to verify a card’s authenticity. In 1999, Congress mandated that FMCSA merge drivers’ medical information with the Commercial Drivers License data system, but FMCSA has not yet implemented this requirement. In addition, Congress mandated in 2005 that FMCSA create a registry of certified medical examiners to ensure that only qualified medical personnel are conducting DOT physicals, but FMCSA is still ‘studying’ the issue.
“It is too early to know whether the medical conditions of the drivers played a role in the horrific crashes that occurred in Texas, Mississippi and
Nevada in the past few days. However, the fact that drivers continue to be able to operate in clear violation of Federal motor carrier safety rules -- without any real consequence – demonstrates that there is an urgent problem that requires immediate attention. Maintaining a lax medical oversight program by ignoring legitimate, sensible recommendations and mandates is simply unacceptable. If FMCSA cannot move quickly on these directives, Congress will once again have to act to compel the Bush Administration to protect travelers on our nation’s roads.”
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