Unsafe Buses Run Until Fatal Crashes After U.S. Inaction

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) When executives of Sky Express Inc. met with U.S. bus-safety regulators for an audit in March, the problems were clear even in the rough English of records translated from Chinese.

One driver worked 11 consecutive days without a rest period, according to audit documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Four of 10 drivers couldn’t understand enough English to identify their employer. An insulin-dependent driver made a 938-mile run without medical clearance. All those infractions violated U.S. law.

Inspectors rated the carrier “unsatisfactory,” meaning it had to close in 45 days unless it could prove it fixed the problems. It didn’t, the documents show. Fifty-four days later, on May 31, one of its buses crashed outside Doswell, Virginia. Four people were killed.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s failure to close Sky Express has been repeated throughout its 12-year history and is linked to a growing number of crashes, some of them fatal, Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said in an interview. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-04/unsafe-buses-run-until-crashes-u-s-fails-to-act.html

[elleng]

1. De-regulation,

:thumbsdown: