November 18, 2009
Department of Transportation:  DOT  Proposed Motorcoach Safety Improvements
Two Days Before Fatal Minn. Bus Crash
The tour bus crash that claimed two lives in Minnesota on Wednesday, occurred two days after the U.S. Secretary of Transportation released a new action plan to address motorcoach safety issues.  The announcement was released on November 16th.  The proposed plan, which is a response to two previous bus accidents which also claimed passenger lives, covers major safety issues including “driver fatigue and inattention, vehicle rollover, occupant ejections and oversight of unsafe carriers.”  The DOT believes the proposed changes will reduce the number of motorcoach crashes and also potentially help save lives.  Investigators probing Wednesday’s fatal crash say it is too early to tell if these proposed safety improvements could have made a difference in the crash.

November 18, 2009
KTHV Channel 11:  Tour Bus Crashes in Minnesota, Some Passengers reported Dead
A Minnesota tour bus crashed on Interstate 90 in southern Minnesota, west of Austin, on Tuesday Nov. 18.  State officials say “there are some fatalities” but have failed to say how many.  Earlier today, authorities had said that as many as 22 people were injured when the tour bus, operated by Strain Bus Line Motor Coach Tours, crashed and rolled over.  According to an employee of the tour bus company, the busses are operated every Wednesday from Rochester to Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood Iowa.

July 13, 2009
WKBT CBS News Channel 8: Fifteen People Injured After Bus is Struck by Tractor-Trailer
Fifteen people were injured when a charter bus collided with a tractor-trailer in a highway west of Manhattan, Arkansas on Monday, July 13, 2009.  The bus, carrying students in a job training program, overturned and burst into flames after being struck by a truck carrying construction materials.  Aboard the bus were students from the Flint Hills Job Corps Center in Manhattan which were returning home from a trip to Kansas City.  The bus had made a legal U-turn right before it was struck, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.

April 28, 2009
Mercury News: At least 4 killed in tour bus crash in Soledad, California
A tour bus carrying foreign tourists was heading towards Southern California when it crashed, overturned and split in two, on an overpass in Soledad, California, killing at least four people.  According to California Highway Patrol, some passengers, French and Canadian tourists, were ejected onto Highway 101, onto nearby railroad tracks and others were projected onto Front Street below.  Both directions of the 101 were closed and at least two victims were evacuated by helicopter and transported to nearby hospitals.  An estimated 48 people are believed to have been on the bus, which is owned by Orion Pacific, a charter company based in Orange. The bus was traveling from San Francisco, stopped in Monterey and Carmel, and was scheduled to stop for the night in Santa Maria.

December 26, 2008
MSNBC: Bus flips and crashes in New Mexico, killing two and injuring 50
Two people were killed and about 50 others injured when the tour bus they were riding in flipped on an icy highway in New Mexico on December 26, 2008. The bus driver had lost control in a construction zone on U.S. 54 about 8 miles north of Corona, causing the bus to flip. The bus, owned by Los Paisanos bus company, was traveling from El Paso, Texas to Aurora, Colorado. The accident is still being investigated but the snow packed and icy roads might have contributed to the deadly accident.

November 5, 2008
San Francisco Chronicle: Charter bus driver arrested in fatal crash
Nine people died and over 30 were injured on Sunday, November 5, when the bus they were in crashed near Williams, California, about two miles from its destination, Colusa Casino Resort.  The bus, carrying mostly senior citizens and Laotian immigrants, crashed on Lone Star Road east of Interstate 5, near Abel road.

According to witnesses, the driver fell asleep at the wheel, losing control of the bus.  After overcorrecting, the bus then veered to the other side of the two lane road before crashing and rolling over in a ditch.

The driver, Quintin Watts, who was critically injured during the crash, as he lay on his hospital bed at Woodland Memorial Hospital.  Watts, 52, of Stockton, is suspected of driving under the influence of prescription or non prescription drugs. 

According to media reports, the bus was uninsured.
Driver Falls Asleep Losing Control of Bus -- Nine Dead and Over 30 Injured

August 11, 2008
CNN: Feds shut down bus company after deadly crash
There have been three major bus crashes involving multiple injuries and fatalities over the past three days.  The first crash occurred in Sherman, Texas when a charter bus experienced a tire blow out and flipped over.  That crash killed 17 people and injured at least 20.  A bus full of tourists on their way to a casino crashed in Mississippi on Sunday, August 10, 2008, killing four people and critically injured several.   Also, on Sunday a bus carrying workers from a casino, suddenly veered into a median wall on Interstate 15 in Las Vegas, injuring an estimated 29 in which four are in critical condition.

July 15, 2008
Washington Post: 2nd Victim In Open-Top Bus Accident In D.C. Dies
Two men died when their heads hit an overpass under the 11th Street overpass in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2008.  They were traveling with a group of people who were on their way to the Washington Nationals baseball game.  They were either standing or sitting on the top deck of the open top double decker bus owned by Open Top Sightseeing, which is best known for their hop-on, hop-off double decker buses in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.  Police are still investigating exactly what occurred.  Open top double decker buses must follow the same height restrictions that apply to other buses and trucks traveling in the city.

July 3, 2008
Baltimore Sun: Some injured after bus overturns
A bus driving from Gunpowder Falls State Park in Chase, Maryland, overturned into a ditch.  Several of the passengers sustained minor injuries.  All on board the bus were taken to the medical center for evaluation.  The organization's name which was operating the bus was not released.

May 21, 2008
Los Angeles Times: 1 dies, 21 hurt as Culver City-Laughlin tour bus crashes
A bus from Royal American Tours and Charter of Glendale, California, crashed on May 17 on its way to Laughlin, Nevada, killing one person and injuring more than 20.  The bus was on a casino trip and had picked up the passengers at a mall in Culver City, CA.  It crashed approximately three miles east of Ludlow, which is approximately 115 miles southwest of Las Vegas.  The bus driver overcorrected his steering several times before losing control of the bus which landed on its side.  The person who was killed  was thrown from the bus and pinned underneath it.   Royal American Tours and Charter had no comment.

January 17, 2008
Associated Press: Bus Crash on Nevada Highway Injures 25
A commuter bus carrying workers to a casino in Primm, Nevada, ran off Interstate 15, critically injuring three passengers and injuring at least 25 more.  The bus was approximately seven miles from the town or Primm which is near the southwest border of California.  As the bus ran off the interstate, it crashed into a guardrail, slid more than 600 feet along a retaining wall and burst into flames.  A trooper for the Nevada Department of Public Safety said there were no deaths due to witnesses and other drivers who stopped and helped.  There was also a quick emergency response.  The bus was burned down to a charred skeleton.  The driver is facing questioning by investigators.

January 16, 2008
Channel 3 WCAX News: Accident Paralyzes Teenage Track Star
A school van on its way to New Hampshire for the Dartmouth Relays in Hanover, was carrying nine members of the junior varsity cross country track team from Stuyvesant High School in New York, when it flipped over on Interstate 91 in Vermont after veering into the median. The road was dry at the time of the crash. One girl is now paralyzed. Several others were injured. The van was being driven by the track team's coach.

January 10, 2008
The Salt Lake Tribune: NTSB finds that pavement was dry before fatal bus crash
According to the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), the pavement was dry when the Arrow Stage Lines bus crashed down an embankment on January 6, 2008, killing nine passengers and injuring over 25.  The bus was traveling along State Route 163 heading back to Phoenix, Arizona from a skip trip.  Several teams of NTSB investigators, including eight officials, are working with the Highway Patrol and the Utah Department of Transportation to determine the cause of the accident.  Roadway conditions, the driver's experience and the condition of the bus will be taken into account during the investigation.  The black box data recorder and video from the bus have been recovered and will be reviewed by investigators determining the cause of the crash.

January 3, 2008
Chicago Tribune: Bus driver in fatal Arkansas crash had drugs in system, prosecutors say
An arrest warrant has been issued for Felix B. Tapia, of Brownsville, Texas.  He was the driver of a Tornado Bus Company charter bus that was traveling from Chicago to Texas on Highway 40 when it crashed in Forrest City, Arkansas on November 25, 2007.  The bus was carrying 46 passengers and crossed the median slamming into a pickup truck, killing three bus passengers and the driver of the pickup truck it hit.  Tapia had amphetamines in his system.  He has been charged with four felony counts of negligent homicide while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  Tornado Bus Company was ordered shut down on December 21, 2007 by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration because it was found to pose a public safety hazard.  Since 2001, Tornado has been fined $57,680 for violating hours of service requirements and falsifying driver records.  In addition, they were fined a total of $5410 for safety violations that were discovered during roadside inspections.

January 6, 2008
A charter bus owned by Arrow Stage Lines ran off the road while driving on State Route 163, killing nine passengers and injuring  over 25.   The bus was carrying 51 passengers and was en route from Colorado to Phoenix after a ski trip.  It crashed about 10 miles north of Mexican Hat where Utah meets Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.  Aid was delayed due to the region's isolation and cell phone service was not available in that area.  

November 30, 2007
ABC Channel 24 Eye Witness News: UPDATE: Driver in Fatal Bus Crash Had String of Citations
Felix Tapia, the bus driver whose bus crashed in Forrest City, Arkansas on November 25 has a bad driving history.  He has received a string of traffic citations over the past six years.  He has been ticketed for speeding four times since 2001 and during the same period, was cited for having defective brakes.  Tapia was driving a bus on November 25, 2007 when he crossed the median and crashed into a tractor trailer and a pick-up truck, killing three people.

November 26, 2007
Chicago Tribune: Three Killed in Arkansas Bus Crash
A Texas-based passenger bus owned by Tornado Bus Company, traveling from Chicago to Dallas, crossed a highway median near Forrest City, Arkansas and crashed into a pick-up truck and tractor trailer, killing three people, including two on the bus.  The bus was westbound on Interstate 40 around 10 p.m. when it veered across the median, and slammed into a pick-up truck, killing it's driver.  The bus then hit a tractor trailer, injuring the driver.  In addition to the three fatalities, 26 people were injured in this crash.