BS: Tragic Bus Crash In Arkansas Kills 16

Subject: BS: Tragic Bus Crash In Arkansas Kills 16
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 09:40 PM

There was a tragic bus accident in Arkansas this weekend. It involved a tour group that originated in Chicago and was en-route to a casino in Tunica, Misssisippi. The bus company involved was a minority owned mom and pop operation that owned only one bus that was about 20 years old. The owner of the company's brother was driving the bus and the owners's wife was escorting the tour. Both were unfortunately killed along with 14 of the passengers.

As a person who has been involved in the charter bus industry for the past 40 plus years and who has survived a similar accident 35 years ago in which 7 children were killed, I feel that many of these accidents can be prevented.

People unfortunately try to save money and usually find out the hard way that the cheapest way is not always the safest. In this case, one driver, a 60 year old man, was making a trip of 560 miles which usually takes about 12 hours. According to Federal Law, a commercial driver is allowed to be on duty for a maximum of 15 hours and only allowed to drive for 10 out of these 15 hours. Usually 500 miles is the limit for one driver. In this case, the driver had already gone 530 miles when the accident occured. Also contributing was the fact that the driver drove all night and ran off the road about 5 AM. A driver who usually works during daylight hours and is then called upon to do an all night charter, can not possibly get the proper rest that he needs, prior to the trip, due to the cicadian rythm or biological clock that the body is used to. In this case the people were trying to save the expense of a night in a hotel, by travelling through the night. Clearly, driver fatigue was a factor in this tragedy. SOL ZELLER