New tour bus laws aim to improve safety this year

UPDATE: 5:40 p.m.

Longtime driver and Lin Lines General Manager Chuck Xaudaro said he remembers the events of last year’s tour bus crash near Palm Springs happening near his bus yard.

It was just horrible,” Xaudaro said. “All I knew at that time is that there had been a bus crash. I didn’t know the severity.”

But about few months after the crash, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials have released new details in a preliminary report.

The report included the conditions of the bus’s tires and roadway, and the speed of the semi-truck the bus crashed into.

At the same time, new laws are starting up concerning tour bus companies like Xaudaro’s, including more inspections in light of recent accidents.

“There was one up in Oakland that occurred a few years back that brought this into effect,” Xaudaro said. “It’s good. It’s good to have these laws put into place.”

Xaudaro said other tour bus laws going into effect this year involve buses eventually being equipped with lighting that will come on automatically in the event of an emergency, and drivers now being required to show every passenger emergency procedures before the start of each trip.

These laws, he said, will open the door to more safety while keeping passengers informed.

“That is my number one concern all of the time,” Xaudaro said. “That my buses leave the yard safely, and return safely.”

The law about emergency lighting will be for buses that can carry at least 39 passengers, and made after July 1st, 2020.

For more information on the laws and NTSB preliminary report, click the links in the previous version of this article below.

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ORIGINAL STORY: 4:06 p.m.

Tour bus laws going into effect in 2017 are looking to increase safety measures on the road. The new laws are coming in the wake of the deadly tour bus crash in Palm Springs that claimed the lives of 12 passengers and the driver of that bus on October 23.

Read more about the new tour bus laws: SB 247 and AB 1677.

The National Transportation Safety Board recently released its preliminary report as it continues to investigate the tour bus crash.

KESQ News Channel 3’s Zak Dahlheimer spoke to a local tour bus company on Wednesday to learn more about the new safety laws and how officials are working with the companies to improve the overall experience for passengers.

Watch KESQ News Channel 3 at 5 p.m. and CBS Local 2 at 6:30 p.m. to learn more about the new tour bus safety laws being implemented this year.