New Jersey Personal Injury Lawyers Call for Increased Regulation
Thousands of people in New Jersey travel by bus every year. Not many passengers are aware that the vehicle in which they are traveling may have been inadequately inspected due to the federal administration's failure to regulate independent inspection companies.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency responsible for commercial motor vehicle and freight carrier operations and safety, has never established regulations for independent bus inspection companies. The agency requires that bus companies frequently inspect their vehicles for compliance, but does not interfere in how states conduct these inspections.
As a result, New Jersey personal injury lawyers find that bus inspection policies vary across the country. In some states, the inspections can be conducted by private garages as well as commercial bus inspection services. In other states, a roadside inspection can be sufficient to meet all inspection requirements.
The National Transportation Safety Board estimates that at least three recent bus accidents in Missouri, Illinois and Texas can be linked to inadequate inspections performed on the buses. One of the accidents occurred near Sherman, Texas, when a bus crashed on a highway, killing 17 people and injuring several others.
The investigating Texas Department of Public Safety trooper requested an audit of the inspection service companies that had conducted inspections on the bus. The investigation found that the company had given the bus a clean chit just one week before the tragedy.
The inspection service was cited for failure to notice defects in the bus. However, the company simply opened up shop again in the same neighborhood with the blessings of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The lack of regulation over the commercial vehicle inspection industry places passengers at a high risk of accidents when these companies fail to perform their duties responsibly.
The New Jersey personal injury lawyers at Helmer Paul Conley and Kasselman represent persons who have been injured in slip and fall accidents, auto accidents, dog bites, assaults, or as a result of using defective products across New Jersey.
