Strike Force Inspections Remove 289 Unsafe Passenger Buses and Drivers

U.S. DOT officials announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and its state and local law enforcement partners across the nation recently conducted 2,782 surprise passenger carrier safety inspections over a nine-day period that resulted in 289 unsafe buses or drivers being removed from our roadways.

The unannounced inspections took place from March 28 through April 6, 2011. The coordinated enforcement strike force issued out-of-service violation citations to 156 drivers and 262 vehicles.

Previously, from March 12 to March 28, an estimated 3,000 passenger carrier safety inspections were conducted across the country, resulting in nearly 300 passenger carrier vehicles being put out of service during the 17-day time frame.

In addition to the strike force inspections, FMCSA and state safety investigators initiated 95 full safety compliance reviews on commercial passenger bus companies. These reviews determine a passenger carrier’s safety rating.

The number of roadside safety inspections of motorcoaches has doubled from 12,991 in 2005 to 25,703 in 2010. Compliance reviews on motorcoach companies more than doubled from 457 in 2005 to 1,042 in 2010.

Passenger fatalities have decreased from 57 in 2004 to 46 in 2009, a 19 percent reduction.

Last year, DOT also sought to curb distracted driving incidents by adopting a regulation banning commercial drivers from texting behind the wheel and initiating a rule-making to ban hand-held mobile phone use.

Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration