On Saturday, January 28, 2023, about 6:00 a.m., a bus was traveling west on New York State Route 37 (SR-37) at a speed of 53–54 mph in Louisville, New York. The bus was operated by LBFNY and transporting 14 workers to a solar farm construction site. At the same time, a box truck, operated by Aero Global Logistics (AGL), was traveling east on SR-37 about 59 mph. SR 37 is a two-lane roadway with one lane in each direction and a posted speed limit of 55 mph. The roadway was wet and there was light snow in the area.
As the two vehicles approached each other, the truck crossed over the highway centerline and collided with the driver’s side of the bus. As a result, six bus passengers died in the crash, two were seriously injured, five had minor injuries, and one was uninjured. The bus driver sustained minor injuries, and the truck driver was seriously injured.
We determined that the probable cause of the Louisville, New York, crash was the truck driver’s fatigue due to insufficient sleep and circadian disruption, which lowered his level of alertness to the driving task and resulted in the truck crossing the centerline of the roadway into the opposing lane of travel and colliding with the oncoming bus.
Contributing to the crash were the failure of the truck motor carrier, AGL, to effectively manage driver fatigue and monitor unsafe driving, and the failure of the bus motor carrier, LBFNY, to operate in compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and a federal out-of-service order. Also contributing was the FMCSA’s ineffective oversight of AGL during the New Entrant Safety Assurance Program and subsequent compliance reviews to ensure that the carrier had appropriate safety management controls in place to mitigate its high crash rate and driver fatigue.
Contributing to the severity of the injuries was the failure of the bus motor carrier, LBFNY, to ensure that seat belts were readily accessible and worn, which resulted in multiple bus occupants being displaced from their seats and injured during the collision sequence.
As a result of this investigation, we issued new safety recommendations to:
- The FMCSA
- The state of Montana
- The American Trucking Associations
- The National Private Truck Council
- The Amalgamated Transit Union
- The International Brotherhood of Teamsters
- The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
- The Transport Workers Union of America
- The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
- LBFNY
- AGL
We also reiterated and/or classified previously issued recommendations to the FMCSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the state of New York.
