Good morning and welcome.

I am John Hammerschmidt, Member of the National Transportation Safety Board and Chairman of this Public Hearing. On the Board of Inquiry with me are: Dr. Vern Ellingstad, Director, Office of Research and Engineering, Mr. Joseph Osterman, Director, Office of Highway Safety, and Mrs. Jean Poole, Hearing Officer with the Office of Highway Safety. We have convened this meeting today to discuss concerns related to the safety of transit bus operations. The Safety Board recently completed an investigation of a transit bus accident that killed four pedestrians and injured three others in Normandy, Missouri. In 1996, near Cosmopolis, Washington, the Safety Board also investigated an accident in which a 10-year-old child returning from school was killed after disembarking from a transit bus that was providing pupil transportation.

The Safety Board learned during these investigations that many transit bus operations are not subject to significant Federal safety oversight. In addition, many States do not provide safety oversight of transit bus systems beyond that of infrequent roadside inspections. In addition, States do not provide consistent or standard safety operating practices for transit buses being used for transporting school children.

Transit buses carry more than 2 million Americans every day. The Federal Transit Administration reported that in 1995 there were 41,297 injuries and 82 fatalities in the transit bus industry. Differences in accident reporting systems, however, make it very difficult to compare fatality and injury rates in the transit bus industry with rates for other modes of transportation.

The purpose of this Public Hearing is to obtain information relating to systemic safety oversight in areas such as driver qualification and training, driver hours of service, and bus maintenance. Additionally, the Safety Board is interested in discovering responsible sources for documenting transit bus exposure data and accident, injury, and fatality data, including pedestrians.

The Board of Inquiry will be assisted by a Technical Panel from the Safety Board’s Offices of Highway Safety, Railroad Safety, and Research and Engineering. They are:

Mr. Kennith Rogers
Mr. Mark Bagnard
Ms. Jennifer Hopkins
Dr. Meg Sweeney
Mr. Gary Van Etten
Mr. Bruce Magladry
Mr. Ed Dobranetski
Ms. Barbara Czech
Mr. Rick Narvell

Also here to assist are Mr. Ted Lopatkiewicz of the Safety Board’s Office of Public Affairs, Messrs. Bob Barlett, Steve Blackistone, Jim Rosenberg, Pete Kotowski, and Ms. Elaine Weinstein. Mrs. Mary Jones and Ms. Ann Nguyen are here to assist with administrative matters.

A Safety Board Public Hearing is a fact-gathering exercise. There will be no attempt to analyze the facts or conclusions at the close of the Hearing. We will spend our time examining current safety problems and what solutions may exist and hear testimony on how various jurisdictions oversee the safety of their transit bus operators. The information from this Public Hearing will be used in the Safety Board’s Special Investigation of Transit Bus Safety. For anyone who would like to receive a copy of that special investigation upon its completion, we have provided a box at the door for you to place your business card with your name and mailing address. You may do this at any time during the next two days of the Hearing.

The Safety Board has designated as "Parties to the Public Hearing" those government agencies, companies, associations, and individuals whose special knowledge will contribute to the development of pertinent facts for the Board’s special investigation and future work in the area of transit bus safety.

The procedures for the hearing are as follows:

The witnesses will be on panels based on specific topic areas. The technical panel will question witnesses on these panels first. Then I will call upon each Party spokesperson to question the witnesses. We will conclude with questions from each member of the Board of Inquiry. If necessary to clarify previous comments, I may allow a second round of questions from the Board’s technical panel.

I would like to introduce the Parties and obtain the names of the Party spokesperson for the record. The Parties are: Federal Transit Administration, Federal Highway Administration, the American Public Transit Association, the Community Transit Association of America, the Amalgamated Transit Union, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

As Chairman of the Board of Inquiry, I will be responsible for the conduct of the Public Hearing. I will make all rulings on the admissibility of documents or information as factual evidence, and all such rulings will be final.

The transcript of the public hearing and all exhibits subsequently entered into the record will become part of the public record in the Safety Board’s Washington, D.C. office. Anyone desiring to purchase the transcript should contact the court reporter, because the Safety Board does not provide copies of the transcript.

Thank you.

Mrs. Poole, will you please introduce the first panel of witnesses.