News 4 Investigates: records show recent safety concerns about Greyhound buses

ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) - News 4 found federal records showing in the past two years, there have been 69 reported crashes involving Greyhound buses, which boils down to more than two a month.

Of those 69 crashes, two were deadly. The feds also flagged Greyhound for not always following the rules.

When it comes to how long their drivers have been on the road, which goes on a 0-100 scale, with zero being the ideal standard, Greyhound measures out at 51. It puts them just above the threshold for being flagged, meaning federal regulators believe they’ve seen recent violations, making Greyhound a priority for intervention actions and roadside inspections.

News 4 looked at records in light of a crash involving a Greyhound bus that left three dead and 14 injured near Highland, Illinois. The bus hit three semi-trucks that were parked in the off-ramp at a rest stop on westbound I-70.

News 4 is learning there have been questions about Greyhound driver safety for years. A lawyer who has represented multiple people in lawsuits against Greyhound recently spoke to News 4. He believes the company needs to do more when it comes to making sure drivers are okay on the road. One lawsuit was related to a 2018 crash in New Mexico where eight people died.

“We want the companies to make sure that fatigued drivers, impaired drivers, intoxicated drivers aren’t behind the wheel of a bus or the cockpit of an airplane, so it shouldn’t be incumbent on a passenger to investigate whether their driver is capable and fully rested to drive that bus. We have to rely on Greyhound to do that and I just don’t think it’s happening,” attorney Ryan Zehl said.

News 4 reached out to Greyhound multiple times. They keep telling us they don’t have any new information about the crash in Madison County and haven’t answered our questions about driver safety. News 4 is still asking whether the bus had seatbelts, a feature that is not required on buses. Greyhound has them on some, but not all of their buses.

Stopping on the shoulder of an exit ramp is not allowed in Illinois. But chances are if you’ve been on Illinois interstates, you’ve seen trucks lined up at rest stops and sometimes onto the shoulder of a ramp. A big factor is federal law, which limits how long commercial truck and bus drivers can be on the road, so when they hit time to stop, they have to pull over.

News 4 talked to a truck driver who was at the Silver Lake Rest Area off of I-70 when the crash happened. He tells us the rest area filled up fast and added that he’s been ticketed before for parking on the shoulder, but says sometimes that’s the only option.

“We are normally not allowed to sleep on the ramps, why that stuff happens, but we don’t have a lot of parking stops to sleep. You stop after six, like most of us do, we don’t know where to park, that’s the reason why we should not park on the ramps,” truck driver Lonnie Mcadoo said.

News 4 is trying to get more information from Illinois State Police about enforcement and how often they are checking.

According to maps, it appears the next closest truck stop is about 15 miles down the highway.

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