What could be more gratifying for a parent than putting your teenager on a church bus for a church function? This scenario happens thousands of times during the summer throughout the country, and it seems like every year, there is a tragedy. Just this week, a bus transporting a church youth group from Shreveport, Louisiana flipped on Interstate 20, killing 1 person and injuring 23 others.
The Shreveport church bus crashed on Interstate 20 in Mississippi, 2 miles west of the Alabama state line. The bus rolled 3 times around 10:20 a.m. near Meridian, trapping at least 2 people underneath. The preliminary cause of the crash was a tire blow-out which caused the bus to roll over. The bus had left the church at 4:45 a.m. headed to a weeklong youth event near Atlanta called Passport.
We should not forget the importance of maintenance and physical inspections of vehicles before each and every trip – this is important for family vehicles, but it is especially important for high-occupancy commercial vehicles. Safety suggests not only inspecting the tires and making sure the tire inflation is according to manufacture specifications, but also a visit to the tire dealer for their professional inspection.
Bus safety is a national concern. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) continues to investigate a motor coach bus rollover accident that occurred in the early evening in 2006. As a 2000 MCI 55-Passenger motor coach carrying 52 passengers was traveling northbound on Interstate 87, descending a 5% grade at an estimated 75 mph, it passed a tractor-semi trailer in the right lane, its left front tire failed, and the vehicle veered sharply to the left. The motor coach went off the pavement, through a 3-cable median barrier, and down a dirt and grass depressed center median. The motor coach struck several large rocks in the median and rolled over, coming to rest on its roof. As a result, 5 people including the driver were killed, and 48 passengers were injured.
Also, the NTSB is continuing its investigation of the 2008 Sherman, TX, motor coach bus accident involving tire failure. The chartered motor coach departed from the Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church in Houston, TX with a driver and 54 passengers on board. The chartered motor coach was in route to the Marian Days Festival in Carthage, MO. Four and a half hours after departure, the motor coach was involved in a multiple-fatality, single vehicle collision in Sherman, TX. The bus experienced a failure of a right steer axle retreaded tire.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
