NY Buses with Revoked Licenses Still on the Road
As reported over the past few months, due to a string of tragic commercial bus crashes that have plagued the Northeast due to bus safety violations, the federal has revoked the operating licenses of eight companies deemed responsible. However, the discipline may be moot as many of those suspended bus fleets are still out on the roads and operating under newly-diverted management companies, according to The New York Times.
Such is the case for a company named World Wide Travel. When its business was suspended back in August, the owner merely shuffled the fleets to operate under separate companies that he runs out of the same Brooklyn office. State transportation officials said a company named Great Escapes, owned by that same individual, now operates most of the former World Wide Travel buses, as reported by The NY Times. World Wide Travel was closed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in June due to severe safety infringements, including company violations of hours of service rules and a driver charged with manslaughter.
The problem of suspended bus fleets that re-emerge on the road with new company names was investigated back in 2009 by the Government Accountability Office. Back then, a Texas accident resulting in 17 fatalities was linked to a shuffled version of a bus business that had been supposedly shut down two months prior. A resulting study showed that upwards of 9 percent of bus fleets with operating licenses revoked for safety reasons had re-emerged under different identities.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a bus accident in New York that you believe was the result of operational negligence, contact the New York bus accident attorneys with Wingate, Rusotti & Shapiro at 212-986-7353 for a free consultation today.
