New Jersey U.S. Senator Wants To Increase Bus Safety

In the wake of a tragic bus crash this week that killed a Pennsylvania college lacrosse team coach and the bus driver, a New Jersey U.S. Senator is calling on the federal Department of Transportation to help ensure the safety of buses carrying student athletes.

“For hundreds of thousands of student-athletes, spending countless hours on bus trips is a commonplace occurrence.  However, the deadly bus crash this week involving the Seton Hill University women’s lacrosse team tragically reminds us that bus crashes can also be a far too commonplace occurrence,” said U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg.

The Senator, who serves as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, has written a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and National Collegiate Athletic Association President Mark Emmert, urging them to work together to develop additional bus safety guidelines.

Last summer initiatives drafted by Senator Lautenberg to improve bus and truck safety were signed into law as part of the surface transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act.  The law reauthorized the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to ensure only the safest motor carriers and drivers enter the truck and bus industries.

This law also increases standards for bus strength and crush resistance, and keeps tired drivers from getting behind the wheel by requiring electronic on-board recorders to better monitor how long they have been on duty.