The bill is part of a package of legislation introduced this month inspired by a tour bus crash in Union Square in November that injured 20 people.
City leaders say rogue companies aggressively harass tourists and ruin vacation stays, according to a report.
Ophadell Williams, the tour bus driver in a New York collision that killed 15 people last year, was acquitted of manslaughter and negligent homicide. He was found guilty on one count of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Sky Express coach driver Kin Yiu Cheung received four counts of involuntary manslaughter in a crash last year that killed four and injured dozens. Crash survivors told the judge that Cheung’s erratic driving lasted for an hour before he nodded off at the wheel and lost control of the bus.
Just one month after being shut down by the FMCSA due to its involvement in a well-publicized collision that killed four passengers, Sky Express defied the order, putting its buses back in service. Meanwhile, another rash of motorcoach accidents is getting media coverage. How do these “chameleons” get away with it?
VP David Palmer testified that this SAFETEA-LU enacted restriction removed a critical tool designed to immediately identify driver and mechanical safety issues.
In light of recent motorcoach collisions caused by unsafe operators, federal agencies and one state in particular are concentrating their efforts to get the bad guys off the road.
Complaint states that the owner of the bus company involved in a fatal accident last week, Cayetano Martinez of Los Angeles, had previously been shut down by FMCSA, only to attempt to "reincarnate himself as a new carrier" and unsuccessfully attempted to gain US DOT operating authority under a new name.
Visits 10 companies operating illegally.
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