FMCSA reveals second bus firm put OOS within 24-hour period

A Pennsylvania State Police trooper climbs out of the emergency exit after looking over the damage caused to a Mr. Ho Charter Service bus after it plowed into the back of a tractor-trailer on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The driver of the bus was killed and now the FMCSA has put the bus company out of service. (Associated Press)

The Trucker Staff

6/30/2011

WASHINGTON — Continuing its stated goal of ridding the nation’s highway of unsafe motor coach companies, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration late Thursday said it had ordered the discount tour bus company involved in a fatal accident Monday to immediately cease operation, marking the second time in some 24 hours the agency had shut down a bus company.

The second out-of-service order was issued after the agency said it found, among other things, that the driver of the bus, who died in the accident, had been allowed to drive before having received a negative pre-employment drug test and had falsified his record-of-duty status for the day before the crash.

Bo Hua Tan, 39, of New York City, was driving a Mr. Ho Charter Service bus that crashed into the rear of a flatbed tractor-trailer on the Pennsylvania Turnpike early Monday morning.

The bus was carrying 35 Asian tourists.

In its out-of-service order issued to the carrier, FMCSA said the co-driver of the bus, Simon Chen, had also been allowed to drive before passing a drug screen and had falsified his record-of-duty status for the day before the crash.

In a news release, the FMCSA said it had told Mr. Ho Charter Service of Bethlehem, Pa., to immediately cease all intrastate and interstate passenger service for multiple drug and alcohol testing violations and for failing to ensure that its drivers comply with Hours of Service regulations.

The agency said neither driver had been off duty the required eight consecutive hours prior to going on duty at 11 p.m. Sunday, June 26.

The OOS order said Tan showed on his record-of-duty status that he was driving on Interstate 70 at milepost 12 in West Virginia at 4 a.m. and on Interstate 71 at milepost 32 in Ohio just north of Cincinnati, at 7 a.m., and that he arrived in Louisville, Ky., at 10 a.m. and was off duty in Louisville from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Rand McNally maps estimate the travel time between Cincinnati and Louisville at less than two hours.

The order said Chen’s log showed he arrived in Louisville at 10 a.m. Sunday and was off duty there until 11 p.m.

The FMCSA order said additional documents revealed that Tan and Chen falsified their logs for Sunday, but did not give any details on that documentation.

A review of the company’s safety record on the FMCSA website revealed that its Fatigued Driving score for the 24-month period ending May 20 was 68.9 percent, 18.9 percent above the threshold that can lead to intervention.

The company’s drivers had been cited for 12 Fatigued Driving violations, none of which resulted in the driver being put OOS.

A Mr. Ho’s driver has been put out-of-service twice for a Driver Fitness violation — one for not possessing a medical certificate — the other time for having an expired medical examiner’s certificate.

According to The Associated Press, the tour bus was headed from Kentucky to New York City.

In its OOS order, the FMCSA said that on June 7, FMCSA safety investigators conducted a compliance review on Mr. Ho Charter Service and cited the company for failure to conduct random drug and alcohol tests on its drivers and issued substantial civil penalty fines.

Although it did not say so in the release, when the agency conducts a compliance review that results in violations so severe that a fine is imposed, the carrier is issued a proposed unsatisfactory safety record.

By federal regulation, passenger carriers have 45 days to contest the outcome of the review or face an OOS order.

The FMCSA said that during this mandatory appeal period, Mr. Ho Charter Service continued to disregard federal regulations.  The company hired both Tan and Chen after the June 7 review, the agency said.

In an announcement earlier Thursday, FMCSA said it had ordered H & W Tour Inc. out of service for certain violations, but in doing so, the agency may well have exposed a gaping hole in its own checks and balances system.

The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.

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