Majority Statement

• Frank R. Lautenberg

  Senator
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  Majority Statement

  Frank R. Lautenberg

             “Let me welcome everyone to today’s hearing on the safety of our nation's buses—and the passengers who ride in them.
  
              Our goal is to examine the current laws and safety practices that govern motor coaches—known as ‘over-the-road’ buses—and how we can improve them.
  
              Buses play a critical role in our nation's transportation network: they connect cities and communities that are often without access to trains or commercial airlines.
  
              They take school sports teams to games, tourist groups sightseeing all over our nation and help evacuate populations being threatened by hurricanes.
  
              We saw this just last week during Hurricane Ike, when buses were literally shuttling evacuees to safety.
  
              In 2006, 631 million passenger trips were taken on a fleet of almost 40,000 motor coaches in the U.S.
  
              More of these vehicles are operated out of New Jersey than in any other state in the country.  So it’s very important to me—as it is to everyone on this Subcommittee—that these buses are safe.
  
              Unfortunately, there have been some serious crashes.
  
              Over the last decade, an average of 16 motor coach passengers and drivers has been killed in crashes each year.
  
              And just last month in New Jersey, two tour buses collided, sending one down a 50-foot ravine.  Fortunately nobody was killed, but many were injured.
  
              I know we are joined today by many of the victims and their families of the West Brook and Bluffton University bus crashes.
  
              Thank you for being here.  Your work will help prevent a tragedy like the one you experienced from happening again.
  
              Like these victims and their families, my concern is that we are not doing enough to regulate bus companies and protect riders from injury or death.
  
              Take a look at this picture.
  
              This is a picture received by my office of a bus wheel.  The bus belonged to a so-called curbside operator right here in Washington, and the photo was taken right as the bus pulled up to start loading passengers.
  
              These companies don’t use bus depots, but pick passengers up and drop them off at the curb.
  
              If you look closely, you will see what appears to be a wire clothes hanger being used to hold brake components together.
  
              That's unbelievable.
  
              One safety expert who saw the picture commented that this is typical for curbside operators who have very little oversight.
  
              The reason we need better laws and oversight is the carelessness with human life this picture demonstrates.
  
              Two months ago, Congress passed the Over-the-Road Transportation Accessibility Act, which was an important step to put in place common sense regulations for approving new bus operators.
  
              Thanks to that bill, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration now requires that bus companies meet disability access laws, as intended by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  
              I am pleased that this Subcommittee acted to make sure that bill became law.
  
              But there's still work to do to make buses safer for their travelers and drivers, as well as for passengers of other vehicles on the road.
  
              Buses still lack many critical safety features that can save lives.
  
              Most school buses lack seat belts, for example, and there are no standards for roof strength, which is critical when a bus rolls over.
  
              And unfit and fatigued drivers continue to be able to get behind the wheel.
  
              We should be making safety improvements to the vehicles themselves, as well as completing work on the comprehensive medical oversight program to prevent unfit drivers from operating commercial vehicles, as required by the SAFETEA-LU legislation.
  
              Many of the improvements we need to make buses safer are similar to those we need in big trucks too.
  
              For instance, we know that fatigue is a problem for both bus and truck drivers alike, and requiring electronic on-board recorders can make sure both are ready to get on the road.
  
              The vehicle may look different, but many of the safety problems and inadequate oversight are the same.
  
              As we look ahead to reauthorize the federal surface transportation programs during the next Congress, we need to thoroughly revamp both our bus and truck safety programs.
  
              Senators Brown and Hutchison have introduced legislation to begin that process.  As the families and victims who are here with us today know all too well, we must act to improve the safety of our buses—and the men, women and children who ride them.
  
              I look forward to hearing from today’s witnesses as we continue that effort.”

Minority Statement

• Kay Bailey Hutchison

  Senator
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  Minority Statement

  Kay Bailey Hutchison

   

  Thank you Senator Lautenberg for holding this hearing, and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today, and a special thank you to Steve Forman who traveled here from Galveston, Texas to testify.
  
  In the past few years, has seen tragic motor coach accidents where innocent people, including children, have died in accidents which could have been prevented. These horrific accidents have demonstrated the need to make sweeping changes to the motor coaches industry.
  
  My state in particular has experienced these tragedies first hand. In 2005, 23 elderly people died after a poorly maintained motor coach they were riding on, to flee on-coming Hurricane Rita, caught fire on the side of the interstate.
  
  In 2006, a motor coach transporting 23 high school soccer players overturned, killing two of the players and injuring the rest.  
  
  And most recently, this summer, a motor coach carrying church goers to a religious festival skidded into a guard rail and toppled onto its side, killing 17 aboard the bus.  Many of the family members and survivors of these accidents have taken time from restoring their lives on the Texas coast in the wake of Hurricane Ike to tell their story and support the important legislation we’re going to discuss at this hearing.
  
  And those accidents were just in Texas . In 2007, Ohio’s Bluffton University ’s baseball team was traveling to a tournament in Florida when the motor coach they were riding plummeted off an overpass killing five players, the bus driver and his wife.  Family members and survivors of this horrible accident are here as well.
  
  This summer, we experienced an explosion of motor coach accidents. In August alone, Texas, Nevada, Mississippi, and New Jersey all had motor coach accidents resulting in deaths and injuries.
  
  All these accidents could have been prevented.
  
  Last year, Senator Brown and I introduced the S. 2326, the Motor Coach Enhanced Safety Act. The bill requires important and lifesaving safety technology to prevent the greatest causes of death and injury in a motorcoach accident.  Most importantly, the bill will prevent passenger ejections from their seats and the bus by requiring the installation of common sense technologies such as seatbelts and window glazing.  
  
  The bill also will prevent accidents from happening in the first place by studying and requiring new technologies such as electronic stability control and collision avoidance systems.  The bill also prevents bus companies from obtaining operating authority from the department of transportation who cannot and will not abide by safety regulations.
  
  The National Transportation Safety Board has been pushing for the changes outlined in this bill for nearly four decades.  When I was Vice Chair of the NTSB from, we promoted these needed safety reforms.  But, Congress still did not act.  We are having this hearing, and the Committee will mark up S. 2326 because Congress can no longer afford to ignore this issue.  This is an important and aggressive bill that we must pass this year.  Without it, we’re doomed for more preventable motor coach accidents.
  
  Motor coaches are a necessary part of our passenger transportation. In Texas , they are vital to evacuating people from the coast when hurricanes are imminent and are affordable options in a time of rising prices on airline tickets and gasoline.   But they are worthless if they are not safe.
  
  I thank the chair and I look forward to hearing from today’s witnesses.

   

   

Opening Remarks

• The Honorable Sherrod Brown

  United States Senator

  Ohio

Testimony

• The Honorable John Hill

  Administrator

  Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
  Download Testimony (36.64 KB)

• The Honorable Mark V. Rosenker

  Acting Chairman

  National Transportation Safety Board
  Download Testimony (162.83 KB)

• The Honorable David Kelly

  Acting Administrator

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  Download Testimony (68.82 KB)

Witness Panel 2

• Mr. Peter J. Pantuso

  President and CEO

  American Bus Association
  Download Testimony (104.86 KB)

• Ms. Jacqueline Gillan

  Vice President

  Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety
  Download Testimony (195.46 KB)

• Mr. Stephen Forman

  West Brook Bus Crash Families
  Download Testimony (156.78 KB)

• Mr. John Betts

  Bryan, Ohio
  Download Testimony (156.45 KB)