National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker told a Senate subcommittee that, “although motorcoach travel is one of the safest modes of transportation, there are still many improvements that can be made to make it even safer.” Testifying before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, Rosenker highlighted the need for improvements in:

• Motorcoach occupant protection systems,
• Government oversight of motorcoach operators, and
• Deployment of advanced motorcoach safety technologies.

While most highway accidents are investigated at the state and local level, intercity motorcoach accidents typically involve a substantial number of people traveling in a single vehicle, so these kinds of crash investigations are frequently brought to NTSB. “These passengers are often students or elderly persons who rely on motorcoach travel and have placed their safety in the hands of a professional motorcoach operator,” said Rosenker. “That factor demands that motorcoaches meet the highest level of safety.”

The issue of Motorcoach Passenger Safety is on the NTSB Most Wanted List of Safety Improvements because of the critical importance of this issue and the lack of substantive progress on the NTSB recommendations. Some of the earliest NTSB recommendations, related to occupant protection features, date back to the origin of NTSB in 1967, while the newest recommendations involve the development of performance standards for new technologies, such as adaptive cruise control and collision warning systems.

The full text of Rosenker’s written testimony can be found on the NTSB website under Speeches and Testimony at:  www.ntsb.gov/Speeches/rosenker/mvr080918.html.

	The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations Pocketbook: Motorcoach/Bus Version can help you satisfy DOT requirements stipulating that all bus drivers be instructed in and comply with the regulations that affect them. It contains only those requiremen