NTSB Number HAR-03/01
NTIS Number PB2003-916201
PDF Document(1.2MB)

Executive Summary: On Sunday, June 9, 2002, about 5:10 a.m. central daylight time, near Loraine, Texas, a 1993 Motor Coach Industries MC-12 motorcoach, operated by Greyhound Lines, Inc., (Greyhound) and occupied by the driver and 37 passengers, was traveling east on Interstate 20 (I-20), on a scheduled route from El Paso, Texas, to Abilene, Texas, at a driver-reported speed of 65 to 67 mph. A truck tractor-semitrailer, consisting of a tractor and a semitrailer leased by DelCar Trucking (DelCar), which was being operated by a driver in training with a codriver in the sleeper berth, was entering the interstate from a picnic area at a driver-estimated speed of 40 mph and proceeding into the eastbound lanes. The motorcoach collided with the rear of the semitrailer near milepost 228 of Interstate 20, pushing the tractor-semitrailer approximately 276 feet. Three passengers on the Greyhound bus, all seated in the front of the bus, were fatally injured. Five passengers and the busdriver were seriously injured. Twenty-four passengers sustained minor injuries, and five passengers were uninjured. The truckdriver sustained a minor injury, and the codriver was uninjured.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the unnecessarily slow acceleration of the unlighted semitrailer onto a high-speed interstate by an inexperienced and unsupervised driver who was impaired by cocaine. Contributing to the accident was DelCar Trucking’s failure to exercise adequate operational oversight and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s failure to ensure the safety of and provide management oversight for new entrant motor carriers.

As a result of this accident investigation, which focuses upon the safety of and management oversight for new entrant motor carriers, the Safety Board makes two recommendations to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.