Nearly 50 motorcoach owners, operators and safety directors, many belonging to some of the nation’s biggest transportation providers, worked with key staff members from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) at a one-day Crisis Management Seminar, at the American Bus Association’s (ABA) Marketplace in Charlotte, N.C. This was the first time the NTSB’s training has ever been offered to the motorcoach industry.

The seven-hour session was sponsored by National Interstate Insurance Co.

This comprehensive training program, led by staff of the NTSB, took motorcoach owners, operators, GMs, communications managers, dispatchers, safety directors and others through the steps of the NTSB’s investigative process, the NTSB’s family assistance program, crisis communication messaging, identifying a company’s role in a crash investigation and working with the media.

Of those attending, 93% percent rated the program as “excellent.”

According to comments received on attendee course evaluations, the seminar contained “valuable information for small and large carriers” and, as one attendee concluded, “I could not be more pleased with the NTSB’s professionalism and the content.”

“The NTSB is the nation’s premier transportation safety agency,” said ABA President/CEO Peter Pantuso. “ABA is very pleased to have worked closely with their top professionals to provide this comprehensive educational program to our members. ABA members, along with those in the Bus Industry Safety Council, are some of the best motorcoach owner/operators in North America. The feedback ABA has received from those who attended has been excellent.”