WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is recommending stronger state and federal regulations for motor carriers — particularly concerning driver hours of service — following a report on a fatal collision between a semi-truck and a bus that took place in December 2022 in Williamsburg, Virginia, which resulted in three deaths and multiple injuries.
“The NTSB determined that the truck driver’s lack of response to the slower-moving bus was due to fatigue from excess driving time and lack of sleep opportunity,” the NTSB said in a media release. “The truck’s motor carrier, Triton Logistics, created fictitious driver accounts for its vehicles’ electronic logging device systems that allowed drivers to exceed federal hours-of-service regulations and drive while fatigued. The investigation also determined that the bus’s significantly slower speed contributed to the severity of the crash.”
According to a press release, the crash occurred on Dec. 16, 2022 when the semi-truck collided with the rear of the slower-moving bus on Interstate 64. The bus was traveling at 20 to 25 miles per hour in the right lane, while the truck was traveling at 65 to 70 miles per hour with cruise control engaged. The speed limit on I-64 is 70 miles per hour.
“The truck driver did not brake or take any evasive action as the truck approached the bus,” the release said. “The collision caused the roof and sidewalls of the bus to detach, exposing the occupants. The bus then rotated, crossed the lane, and breached the guardrail. As a result, three bus occupants died, nine occupants and the truck driver sustained serious injuries, and 11 bus occupants sustained minor injuries.”
As a result of the investigation, the NTSB is issuing six new recommendations and reiterating three previous recommendations. New recommendations include:
- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should strengthen electronic logging device requirements to prevent opportunities for the creation of fake driver accounts.
- The Commonwealth of Virginia should offer management safety guidance to new intrastate motor carrier licensees covering license class, drug and alcohol testing, fatigue management, vehicle maintenance, and safe commercial vehicle operation.
- Triton Logistics should implement a process to regularly verify the accuracy of drivers’ records of duty, implement a robust fatigue management program, and proactively use onboard inward- and forward-facing video event recording to improve driver training.
- The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance should use this crash to educate its members on the importance of safeguarding the electronic logging device system to prevent falsification of information.
Reiterated recommendations include:
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should complete the development and application of performance standards for the assessment of forward collision avoidance systems in commercial vehicles. NHTSA should also require that all buses and trucks over 10,000 pounds be equipped with onboard video recorders that record parametric data associated with an event.
- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should provide guidance to motor carriers on the use of onboard video recordings to ensure driver compliance with regulations and safe operations.
The full report on crash investigation is available on the NTSB’s website.
To report an incident/accident or if you are a public safety agency, please call 1-844-373-9922 or 202-314-6290 to speak to a Watch Officer at the NTSB Response Operations Center (ROC) in Washington, DC (24/7).
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
