NTSB recommends contingency plans for bus crashes

The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that charter bus companies come up with better contingency plans to deal with crashes in remote areas.

The NTSB says crashes such as the one near Mexican Hat in San Juan County in January 2008 showed several ways safety can be improved for bus travel. 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 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 said the accident likely was caused by fatigue that led the 71-year-old driver to underestimate his speed and slowed his reaction time.

The bus 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.

The severity of the Utah crash was compounded by the location.

The bus veered of U.S. 163 near the Four Corners, a remote region about 275 miles southeast of Salt Lake City where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado meet. The first call for help came from a passer-by, who drove eight miles to Mexican Hat, the nearest town, to use a land line for calling 911.

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.

In the Utah crash, the bus rolled and its roof was torn off. Everyone aboard was ejected except for the driver, who was wearing the only seat belt on the bus, and one man who was pinned between two seats.

More information is available at www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2009/H09—9.pdf.