A sleep-deprived driver was responsible for an Aug. 2 motorcoach accident that killed four, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which urged stricter safety standards.
The motorcoach was traveling from Los Angeles to Modesto when it crashed outside Livingston, California. The bus ran off the road, hitting a guardrail and a highway signpost. The 14-inch-diameter signpost tore through two-thirds of the passenger compartment.
There is no evidence the driver, who had only slept five hours in the 40 hours preceding the crash, tried to avoid the accident.
The driver worked for Autobuses Coordinados USA, based in Fresno, California. In two years, the company has failed eight of 29 federal inspections. Its out-of-service rate is 38 percent; the national average is 8 percent.
“Here’s yet another fatal crash involving both a motorcoach carrier with a starkly evident history of safety problems and a severely fatigued driver,” NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said. “It’s time that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) move more aggressively to keep these unsafe carriers off American roadways.”
The NTSB says the FMCSA needs to change its motor carrier safety rating system and that the administration’s lack of oversight contributed to the crash. Autobuses Coordinados’ inadequate safety practices also were listed as a contributing factor.
The NTSB also issued two new recommendations aimed at developing risk-based guidelines to determine where barrier systems should be installed to shield motorcoaches and other heavy vehicles from roadside obstacles and hazards.