The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending charter bus companies come up with better contingency plans to deal with crashes in remote areas.
The NTSB sent recommendations Friday to the American Bus Association and the United Motorcoach Association. The list suggests detailed contingency plans and information about driving through remote areas where there is no wireless telephone coverage.
The NTSB says crashes such as the one near Mexican Hat, Utah, in January 2008, showed several ways safety can be improved. Nine people died in the crash and 43 others were injured as they returned to Phoenix from a weekend ski trip in Telluride, Colo.
The NTSB said the accident likely was caused by the 71-year-old driver’s fatigue, which slowed his reaction time. The bus also had to take a longer route than normal because a mountain pass had been closed by heavy snow.
The recommendations said the charter company, Arrow Stage Lines, should have considered overnight accommodations or provided relief drivers somewhere along the 550-mile drive between Telluride and Phoenix.
“For contingency plans to be effective, they must be considered before the start of the trip, documented and coordinated with the charter group,” the NTSB said.
Arrow Stage Lines, headquartered in Omaha, Neb., did not immediately response to e-mails from The Associated Press or to phone messages left for several Arrow executives on Saturday morning. The associations also did not respond to e-mails and telephone messages Saturday.
The NTSB also criticized the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to implement motorcoach safety recommendations made a decade ago.
Recommendations included stronger roofs on buses, that buses should have easy-to-open, shatterproof windows and that steps be taken — including possibly requiring seat belts — to prevent passengers from being ejected in rollovers.
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