Senator Sherrod Brown

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) today held a news conference to highlight the need for major safety upgrades on buses and motorcoaches. Following the new conference, Brown testified at an oversight hearing on bus safety held by the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security.

“It’s clear that we need stronger motorcoach safety regulations. Now it’s time for action,” said Brown. “We cannot wait until motorcoaches are on the road to worry about safety— we need to do so before they are built.  I commend Chairman Lautenberg for taking up this important issue. Federal action can prevent future tragedies.”

The senators were joined by family members who lost loved ones in recent bus crashes, as well as key advocates for transportation safety. An official from the Motor & Equipment and Manufacturers Association (MEMA) demonstrated safety features on a newly outfitted bus.

In 2006, more than 630 million passengers took trips in motorcoaches, according to the American Bus Association, with up to 59 occupants on board for any given trip. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) reports that 3,700 interstate motorcoach companies are registered with the agency, with the number increasing by 900 each year. However, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) does not require that motorcoaches have basic occupant protection safety features. In recent years, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has made numerous safety recommendations to improve motorcoach safety, including promoting such critical safety features as safety belts, advanced glazing on windows and other measures to prevent passengers from being ejected, protection against dangerous motorcoach interior impacts, crush-resistant roofs, and protection against fires. These recommendations have languished for years without federal agency attention and action.

Brown and Hutchison are authors of The Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act. This bipartisan legislation would require DOT to upgrade federal safety standards applicable to motorcoaches and take action to improve the operational requirements of drivers and companies. The legislation would lead to the adoption of available safety technologies, result in stronger oversight and compliance with federal safety rules, and encourage better training of motorcoach operators to protect passengers from death and injury due to ejection, rollover, roof crush, and fires.

Specifically, the legislation would require:

• Safety belts and stronger seating systems to ensure occupants stay in their seats in a crash.
• Improved commercial driver training. Currently, no training is required by federal regulation.
• Anti-ejection glazing windows to prevent passengers from being easily thrown outside the motorcoach.
• Strong, crush-resistant roofs that can withstand rollovers.
• Improved protection against fires by reducing flammability of the motorcoach interior, and better training for operators in the case of fire. 
• A National Commercial Motor Vehicle Medical Registry to ensure that only medically qualified examiners conduct physical examinations of drivers and a medical certificate process to ensure that all certificates are valid and no unqualified operator is allowed to drive.
• Strengthened motorcoach vehicle safety inspections including roadside inspections, safety audits, and state and motor carrier programs for identifying vehicle defects.
• Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBRs) with real-time capabilities to track precise vehicle location that cannot be tampered with by the driver.

The Senators were joined today by Jacqueline S. Gillan, Vice President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Yen-Chi Le, daughter of a Sherman, TX bus crash victim (Aug. 8, 2008), John Betts, father of a Bluffton bus crash victim (Mar. 2, 2007), Stephen Forman, father of a West Brook High School (Beaumont, TX) bus crash survivor (3/29/06), Ann Wilson, Sr. VP for Government Affairs from MEMA, and Jon Morrison, President and General Manager of Meritor WABCO Vehicle Control Systems.

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