A new report from the National Transportation Safety Board find that a severe shortage of accessible truck parking contributed to the July 2023 Greyhound bus crash.
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) said the report indicated that a collision between the bus and a tractor trailer parked on the side of an offramp had a hand in the wreck near Highland, Ill., that killed three and injured more than a dozen.
“I grew up in a family trucking business and have been shouting from the rooftops for years about America’s dangerous shortage of truck parking spaces,” Bost said. “When exhausted truckers are forced to choose between pushing that extra mile to find safe parking or pull over on the shoulder of busy interstates and offramps, you’ve got a recipe for disaster. That’s exactly what we witnessed here in Southern Illinois. I am hopeful the NTSB’s final report on the Highland crash will help provide additional momentum in Congress to pass my legislation to expand safe, accessible parking options for big trucks nationwide.”
Legislation Bost introduced in February would provide competitive funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation to construct new commercial truck parking facilities. The legislation, the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, was approved by the House Transportation Committee in the last Congress, but did not make it to the floor of the full House for a vote. Bost reintroduced the bill this year in hopes it would be incorporated into the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill to be considered later this year.