Bus crashes sound wake-up call

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 | 5:13 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Former California Angels manager Buck Rodgers herded his team onto two chartered buses after a 3-2 night-game loss to the New York Yankees on May 21, 1992.

The players looked forward to a short 3 1/2-hour ride to Baltimore and a three-game series with the Orioles. Rodgers chatted with driver Carl Venetz, 38, as the buses rumbled out of New York about 1 a.m. The driver told Rodgers he had been up since 7 a.m.

After a bit, Rodgers, in the front seat, got sucked into the on-board movie: "Delta Force," with Chuck Norris, he remembers.

An hour later, about 2 a.m., Rodgers felt a sudden jarring.

"I heard a ticker-tack-tack-tack -- where we were going along the guardrail," Rodgers said in a phone interview from his California home.

"The next thing I knew, we were going down an embankment."

A tree branch blasted through the windshield.

"It just grazed me," Rodgers said. "If I hadn't ducked, it would have taken my head off."

No one died. Rodgers was hurt the worst. He needed surgery, an artificial elbow and screws in his knee.

Investigators said Venetz fell asleep, although he denied it. Three years later Rodgers settled a lawsuit with the bus company, Kevah Konner, for an undisclosed sum.

"When he went off the road, it was obvious he went to sleep," Rodgers said. "He never hit the brakes. There were no skid marks before he hit the rail."

The Angels' crash was one of at least nine commercial bus accidents in the last nine years that were caused in part by driver fatigue, Sun research shows.

Bus travel is an integral part of tourism in Las Vegas. Of the 35.8 million visitors a year traveling to the city, about 2.8 million of them -- or 8 percent -- arrive by bus, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority's researchers said.

About 56,000 to 60,000 buses bring tourists to the city each year.

Bus companies and government regulators don't compile records of fatigue-related accidents, but official reports over the last decade show several drowsy drivers have repeatedly climbed behind the wheel, occasionally with tragic results.

Two recent Greyhound Lines Inc. accidents stand out: one in July, 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, in which 36 passengers and the driver, Jerry Davis, were injured (Davis later died.); another in Tennessee last month, when a passenger was thrown from the bus and killed and 45 others were injured.

Passengers in both accidents said the bus drivers were drowsy. Greyhound won't say what caused the accidents until its own investigations are complete -- but it rarely acknowledges a driver fell asleep on the job, even when investigators say he did.

The history of fatigue-related bus accidents may or may not suggest a troubling trend. And crash numbers may seem low given the staggering 2.6 billion miles buses travel in America each year. But experts and government officials say not enough is being done to combat the problem of bus driver fatigue.

Among other issues, outdated driver work-hour laws do not adequately address fatigue, some experts said. And there are few statistics to help people grasp the size of the problem.

More should be done by the government and bus companies to keep drivers awake by use on-bus technology, sharper education programs, better scheduling and by making work-hour law changes, regulators, researchers and industry consultants said.

"I am tired of hearing about these ... rolled over buses for something that is completely preventable," said sleep expert Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. "What people don't realize is that driving sleepy is the same as driving intoxicated. The word is getting out. But these things just take decades."

Underreported

Bus-industry officials stress that accidents are relatively rare.

Commercial-truck accidents are three times more likely to occur than bus accidents, Greyhound officials said. National Transportation Safety Board officials said buses statistically are the safest way to travel -- safer than cars, trains, even airplanes.

"We constantly talk about safety and how important it is for drivers to secure their rest," said Ron Jasper, a manager in Atlanta for Greyhound, by far the nation's largest commercial-bus line. The company has 20,000 daily departures, roughly 5,000 drivers and is one of the safest bus lines in the business, according to some industry analysts.

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study shows that between 1993 and 1997, 141 commercial buses were involved in accidents that killed 21 people and injured 442. The NHTSA report did not indicate how many were caused by fatigue.

But officials said the number of fatigue-related bus crashes is likely underestimated -- "wildly underreported," Mahowald said -- because fatigue is often difficult to pinpoint as an accident cause. That's one reason statistics on the topic are scarce.

Fatigue also may contribute to accidents in which other culprits -- bad weather or a driver ailment, for example -- are identified as accident causes.

"In our accident investigations, we have found that (fatigue) is far more prevalent than the industry or the (Transportation) Department statistics demonstrated," Jerry Osterman, NTSB director of highway safety, said in an interview with the Sun. And while bus accidents are rare, they often grab headlines because of multiple injuries or fatalities.

In the accident near Las Vegas, passenger Eric Murphy, 31, was thrown from the bus. He has two one-inch titanium plates in his head where he believes rocks crushed his skull above his eye.

Murphy said driver Davis was visibly exhausted and had stopped twice in just a few hours of driving to revive himself with fresh air and coffee. Just before the crash, Davis wasn't yet sleeping but was so drowsy he unknowingly drifted off the interstate onto the Glendale exit ramp without slowing, said Murphy, who was sitting in the front seat trying to keep the driver alert with conversation.

Davis simply followed the white line onto the ramp without realizing it, Murphy said.

"I told him, 'We're on the exit! We're on the exit! Hit the brakes!' I told him, 'Hit the brakes!' three times," Murphy said.

Murphy glanced at the speedometer -- 73 mph -- and realized the bus would tip over.

"I just thought, 'It's all in your hands,' to the big boss upstairs," Murphy said.

Old problem

Certainly, the problem of driver fatigue is not new. The federal regulation that limits driver shifts to 10 hours dates from before World War II.

But over the years, fatigue-related accidents often have one thing in common: crash investigations followed by little regulatory action or consequences aimed at getting drowsy drivers off the road.

Buried in the long list of NTSB highway accident investigation reports is an 18-year-old crash involving a Trailways Lines Inc. coach.

At 5:15 a.m. on Nov. 30, 1983, the bus traveling on U.S. 59 in Texas bashed a slower-moving truck from behind. The bus crashed through a bridge guardrail to a riverbed 26 feet below, killing six of 12 on board and injuring the others.

The NTSB said the early morning accident was caused by the driver's "lack of alertness, possibly due to fatigue."

Eight months later a similar accident: Another tour bus in Wyoming hit another truck from behind. One passenger died. The cause: the driver's "lack of sleep and acute fatigue."

In both cases, the NTSB made the same recommendation to the Federal Highway Administration's Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety: "Determine practical methods and means to prevent or minimize dozing at the wheel" by bus drivers.

These days, regulators and bus companies say drivers must do more than "minimize" sleeping at the wheel.

Many highway officials said they are trying to stigmatize drowsy driving as they did drunken driving. Public education campaigns -- one by NHTSA is aimed specifically at young drivers and shift workers -- are one answer.

"There is considerable concern about drowsy driving now that wasn't there five years ago," NHTSA's Jim Nichols said.

Old law

Federal regulators made their milestone attempt to curb drowsy driving in 1937 with a rule that restricted bus and truck drivers to 10 hours driving with eight hours off. That rule has never changed despite a battle that has raged for years over how best to update it.

In short, the current rules allow a driver to spend 10 hours on the road, take eight off, then climb back in and drive up to 15 hours within 24 hours. Such "split shifts" are common for some companies, experts said.

As part of a broader stroke to improve highway safety, Congress in 1999 created the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration specifically to improve bus and truck safety. The long-running controversy over the hours-of-service rule changes fell in its lap, and that has become a test of the fledgling agency's efficacy, observers said.

Last year, the agency made its proposed rule change: a schedule that limited a driver to 12 hours driving within 24 hours.

A firestorm ensued. Trucking- and bus-industry leaders roared. The proposal both limited their driving time and allowed for 12-hour stretches instead of 10 -- making the problem worse, critics charged. About 70,000 comments on the proposal reportedly flooded the FMCSA.

Complicating matters, bus officials demanded different rules than truckers. Both factions mounted aggressive lobbying campaigns against the new rules.

Last year Congress put the brakes on the whole rule- change process, and it's not clear when, if ever, new rules will be adopted.

"Clearly, everyone is in agreement that the current rules need to be changed," FMCSA spokesman David Longo said.

The question is how?

No data

One hindrance to those who seek fast and effective solutions to bus driver fatigue is a lack of information.

Neither the NTSB nor FCMCA, the agencies that investigate serious accidents and regulate the bus industry, compile fatigue-related crash statistics. With no trend data, officials are left wondering if the accidents are becoming more frequent.

Longo said there is simply no consistent or logical way to track and measure driver fatigue.

"It's not something that people, if they live, are going to own up to," he said.

"There's so much attention paid to truck drivers that there is very little attention paid to specific issues associated with bus drivers," said Anne McCartt of the National Sleep Foundation, who has studied driver fatigue.

And bus companies rarely keep fatigue data. Greyhound almost never says driver fatigue caused a crash. In its internal accident reports, Greyhound does not indicate if fatigue or drowsiness played a part in an accident, the Sun learned.

In five Greyhound accidents since 1993, including the recent Nevada and Tennessee accidents, the company acknowledged only one was caused by a fatigued driver. The Tennessee accident is still under investigation and more reports are expected; passengers told investigators the driver was dozing.

A preliminary report from the Tennessee highway patrol last month stopped just short of saying the driver fell asleep. The report said the driver drifted off the road and went 600 feet before he "either was awoken" or finally made a decision to react for another reason.

Nevada crash

Greyhound conducts its own accident investigations, separate from highway patrols and the NTSB.

In the Nevada crash, Greyhound disputes that Davis fell asleep, as the highway patrol report indicates. According to Davis' Greyhound file, passengers on two previous trips had complained about him falling asleep, patrol investigators said.

The company's accident reconstructionists are still investigating, Greyhound Chief Operating Officer Jack Haugsland told the Sun.

Davis purposely navigated the bus off the interstate, Haugsland said, adding that Davis did not fall asleep or even accidentally veer off the road in his drowsy state, as Murphy, the passenger, said.

"He was getting off for a reason that I don't think we'll ever know," Haugsland said.

Accidents occasionally put Greyhound at odds with local or federal investigators.

"Greyhound has disagreed with some of our investigations relative to fatigue," NTSB's Osterman said. "We're confident in what we've done and what we have found in regard to fatigue."

The NTSB has the grim duty of investigating serious accidents of all kinds.

Officials decide whether to investigate a serious bus crash based in part on whether an investigation could lead to concrete recommendations that would spur changes and save lives in the future.

But few changes aimed at decreasing bus driver fatigue are being made, some experts said.

For example, in a February 1999 NTSB report, the agency examined two crashes: one in 1997 in Virginia involving a Rite-Way Transportation Inc. bus; and one in 1995 in Indiana involving a Hammond Yellow Coach Line bus.

The fatigue-related accidents -- the Rite-Way driver reportedly told state police, "I fell asleep, I guess," -- led the NTSB to reassert bus companies must avoid putting drivers on "inverted duty-sleep schedules." Such schedules require drivers to drive during a time when they normally sleep.

Greyhound officials said they rarely require drivers to work inverted or split schedules.

But the practices continue throughout the industry to varying degrees, observers said.

Inverted scheduling is pretty common, said New York transportation consultant Ned Einstein.

"You end up having drivers driving during their least alert periods," Einstein said.

Note of frustration

Another NTSB report, "Evaluation of U.S. Department of Transportation Efforts in the 1990s to Address Operator Fatigue," issued in May 1999 goaded the Transportation Department and Federal Highway Administration to finally require drivers to take more than eight hours off -- so they actually sleep a minimum of eight hours.

The report sounded a note of frustration: "Despite the acknowledgement by the U.S. DOT that fatigue is a significant factor in transportation accidents, little progress has been made to revise the hours-of-service regulations to incorporate the results of the latest research on fatigue and sleep issues."

The report was underscored by a FMCSA study in December 1999. It recommended that the government increase minimum off-duty time for drivers to at least 10 hours.

"The fact is these guys need more sleep," said Dan Elliott, a project manager for Virginia-based Arrowhead Space & Telecommunications Inc., a research firm that helped FMCSA draft the report. Arrowhead interviewed driver focus groups.

Elliott said bus industry leaders blasted his report that recommended numerous changes, including:

* Minimize inverted duty sleep cycles for drivers.

* Compile census, accident, vehicle performance and other data specific to buses.

* Hold tour operators responsible for not obeying federal fatigue regulations.

Many industry watchers agree that drivers, especially at smaller bus companies, break hours-of-service rules.

"The current driver hours-of-service rules are often violated," especially by truckers, but also at times by bus drivers, said David Snyder, assistant general counsel for the American Insurance Association, which has a keen interest in decreasing bus accidents.

Dennis Wylie, a transportation industry consultant in California, said, "No one really knows aside from the drivers and dispatchers what kinds of hours are being worked. An ignorant or disreputable motor carrier can break the existing federal rules."

Responsibility for drivers often falls largely on the shoulders of companies and drivers themselves, experts agreed.

But many companies, especially smaller ones with thinner profit margins, could be reluctant to absorb costs associated with using more technology, for example, said Peter Pantuso, president of the American Bus Association, a leading industry group.

About 4,000 bus companies operate in the United States and Canada, and 65 percent have fewer than 10 buses, according to the American Bus Association.

Bus companies object to the shift change rules because, as proposed, they restrict the companies to the same rules as truckers.

Officials with Greyhound said they are doing everything they can to prevent driver fatigue accidents.

For decades, the company has required drivers to keep logs -- accounts of how they spent their shift, which supervisors check, Greyhound's Haugsland said. An outside auditor double-checks the logs.

Supervisors also continually bombard drivers with messages in posters, voice mail, newsletters and at safety meetings, Haugsland said.

Greyhound strongly recommends drivers not take second jobs, although some do.

Supervisors also train dispatchers to keep a sharp ear tuned to signs of exhaustion in a driver's voice. The company encourages drivers to call off their shift if they are too tired to drive, although each day only seven to nine drivers do that, Haugsland said.

"We're making changes pretty much constantly" to improve safety, spokeswoman Lynn Brown said. However, when asked for an example of a case in which Greyhound made a specific change after a fatigue-related Greyhound accident, company officials could not find one.

Driver Richard Jones, a 26-year veteran who goes from Atlanta to Jackson, Miss., and back six days a week, said he always gets enough rest during a 9 1/2-hour break at a Jackson hotel. Jones also teaches new driver training.

"I just tell them that the body will shut down if it doesn't have enough rest," Jones said in an interview arranged by Greyhound. "We drill that constantly."

Other Greyhound drivers approached by the Sun for interviews at the Washington, D.C., terminal said corporate policy forbids them from talking to the media.

1,000-accident study

Observers said they hope bus driver fatigue becomes a much more high-profile issue -- before another bad accident happens.

FMCSA is conducting a study of the causes of 1,000 accidents that experts hope will shed more light on the cause and frequency of fatigue-related accidents -- and spark changes that reduce the crashes. A draft is expected in a few months, officials said.

FMCSA also is planning to launch a Congress-directed study specifically aimed at analyzing issues related to bus driver -- as opposed to truck driver -- fatigue.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a member of the House Transportation subcommittee on Highways, said Congress should consider holding hearings on bus driver fatigue. At the least, lawmakers should pursue valid data on the issue, she said.

Sun librarian Rebecca Bagayas contributed research to this article.

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