The New York Times’ Matthew Wald and James C. McKinley, Jr. have discovered something disconcerting: bus companies that the federal govt. bans for safety reasons can, and have, registered under different names. In fact  a bus that crashed and killed 17 in Texas last Friday was operated by Angel de la Torre, who started a new bus company after his old one was banned from interstate travel.

The Dept. of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration handles giving approval for interestate bus travel. John H. Hill, the agency’s head promised to freeze all approvals "until I get my hands around this."

As someone who lives on the public transit-heavy East coast, it can seem like there’s a new bus company a week. That might actually be true– they are an astonishing 3,500 active bus companies in America. This environmentally sound mode of transport should be encouraged– and legitimately regulated.-MB

Comment RSS - You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.