As millions of Americans of all ages hit the road this weekend, many of them are going by bus. Bus travel is an affordable and efficient way to connect to destinations across the country. It's also one of the safest forms of travel. But it can always be safer.
From August 13 through August 27, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and our state and local law enforcement partners carried out a nationwide bus safety inspection sweep. FMCSA has been conducting these regional and national strike forces for the past 7 years. The reason is simple –to identify unsafe bus companies and drivers, get them off the road or out of business until they fix the problem, and keep our roads safe.
Oregon Division
Safety Investigator David Bacon inspects a bus in Beaverton, Oregon, as part of
an Agency-wide effort to check double-decker buses. (Photo by David Rios, Oregon Division State
Program Manager)
When I visited Boston’s South Station earlier this month, I saw first-hand how our law enforcement community came together to conduct numerous inspections to make bus travel as safe as possible. Inspections like the ones I witnessed were conducted across the country in national parks, historic sites, amusement parks, and other popular destinations during the strike force.
And our safety reach is growing. For the first time, buses were inspected at locations such as Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. Thousands of miles away, the island of Guam issued a special proclamation in recognition of the bus strike force. Far and wide, the need to ensure safety took priority for bus passengers at every inspection site. This good enforcement work by our dedicated investigators and inspectors has made travel safer for all bus passengers passengers –and all motorists who share the road with them..
Safety Investigator Mark Halter conducts a curbside
inspection as part of the National Passenger Project.
We’re also keeping up our focus on unsafe curbside buses along the I-95 corridor that began tearlier this year. Inspections took place near traditional destination points along busy East Coast highways, and we targeted tire and weight restrictions on motorcoaches to prevent dangerous crashes caused by tire blow-outs.