In light of some recent motorcoach accidents, the Federal Motor Coach Safety Association provided tips to attendees at a Minnesota Association for Pupil Transportation show on how to select a safe charter operator for school trips.
Dan Drexler, the Minnesota division administrator for FMCSA, gave a presentation on the topic at the Jan. 21 Minnesota School Bus Operator’s Association/Minnesota Association for Pupil Transportation’s annual joint winter conference. He advised that checking a motorcoach company’s safety performance scores and their operating authority and insurance requirements are the first steps student transporters should take before considering price and convenience.
Drexler also addressed how those who set up motor coach transportation for a school can create safer itineraries and the type of records to ask from the charter company.
The joint winter conference usually includes presentations by such agencies as the Minnesota State Patrol, which has a division that oversees school bus safety in the state, and FMSCA. The presentations by both agencies this year focused on recent high profile motor coach crashes in Minnesota.
The last major motorcoach accident in Minnesota took place Nov. 18, 2009, when a motorcoach carrying mostly senior citizens swerved off the freeway and rolled into a ditch after the driver suffered an aneurysm. As a result, two people were killed. The last motorcoach crash involving students took place on May 3, 2009. Two motorcoaches carrying Winona County DARE students from a Minnesota Twins baseball game were involved in a chain reaction crash. There were no fatalities, but two people were hospitalized and dozens were injured.
“There are school bands or choirs that don’t use school buses but motorcoaches to make the long haul to events, so the presentation was to help schools and school district choose how to evaluate motor coach companies,” said MAPT President Keith Paulson.
“What we like about working with Drexler and our State Patrol officials at this conference is they try to help us learn from these events…what are the lessons learned and how we can apply those lessons to what we do every day,” he added.
