Owner of bus sounds like he's blaming GPS distraction, not driver's inability to read

"The device intended to keep me from crashing distracted me and I crashed."

I've heard it all.

Let's ignore the GPS aspect of this and go from the top.

I've worked as a "step-on" tour guide in Boston for 30 years now. That means I get paid to meet a group like this (and their bus) when they arrive in Boston; I guide them on a tour (usually part bus and part walking) and I help the bus driver navigate the city; and when my shift is over, I make sure that the driver knows how to get out of the city and on the highway to his/her destination. Not every out-of-state tour company hires a local guide in Boston, but the good ones do.

I was doing this long before here were GPS devices or cell phones (and long before the Artery went underground).

I was truly sickened when I read this story last night and was unable to sleep much of the night, worrying about the children.

First, look carefully at the photo in the earlier post (http://twitpic.com/c0fpsk). Through the tinted glass of the bus windows you can see a horizontal line about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the window. In other photos that line goes from the front to the back of the bus. That line is the top of the body panel, i.e. it's the BOTTOM OF THE WINDOW FRAME. The entire bus roof has collapsed so that the overhead compartments are resting on the seat backs. And the entire roof is also pushed back about 5 feet from its normal position. It's a wonder that the injuries weren't worse.

The bus didn't get wedged under the bridge, nor did the roof open up like a sardine can. No, the momentum of the bus caused it to go all the way through the underpass and end up on the other side. He had to be going at a very high speed.

As others have noted, the bus had to have gotten on the parkway at North Harvard Street, by the Anderson Bridge. There's a lot of construction there, and it was dark, so it's possible that the driver didn't see the sign. Or maybe he couldn't speak (or read) English. Still, the "cars only" sign -- if it's still there -- hangs low enough that it should have hit the bus roof as it entered the ramp. (The Google StreetView images are from August 2009.)

(If the bus had been on Soldiers Field Road already, it would have hit the underpass at North Harvard Street.)

As others have noted, the bus would have barely squeaked under the pedestrian overpass next to the Weeks Footbridge.

Then the bus missed the exit that would take it to the Mass. Pike.

Clearly the driver was completely lost. He had not bothered to plan his route or to ask directions from anyone locally. When you, the bus driver, are responsible for the safety of 40 or 50 other people, that is the utmost of irresponsibility. And despite being lost, he was traveling at an excessive rate of speed (as noted above).

Some of the drivers I work with have told me that there are special GPS units that are programmed for large commercial vehicles, but the same drivers have also told me that they are unreliable, they don't always have all the truck and bus exclusions programmed into them. So you still have to rely on common sense.

Let's look at a couple of other things:

From the Facebook page cited by Adam above, we can determine that the group was making a one-day trip, up from Philadelphia to Boston and back in one day. There is a federal regulation (U.S. DOT) on "hours of service" that spells out how many hours a driver can work in one day. That regulation exists solely for safety reasons. While I don't know the exact details of their itinerary, I have a rough idea of how long it takes to drive from Philly to Boston and I think it's highly unlikely that such a trip could be made in one day while in compliance with that regulation. Given the time when the driver had to report for duty at his garage, and thus the time when he had to get out of bed in the morning, it was already a long day for him by the time the accident occurred at 7:30 pm.

In my 30 years in the industry, I've worked with hundreds of bus companies from all over the U.S. and Canada. Ninety-nine percent of the companies, and the drivers, are excellent. But there are companies for whom safety is clearly not a concern. These companies are able to underbid the more responsible bus companies, meaning you often get what you pay for. So if you're looking for a bargain, and you don't watch out, you can get one of the companies that just doesn't care. I don't recall ever working with Calvary Coach, so I can't say anything specific about them. But the fact is, there are irresponsible bus companies out there, and you have to watch out when you're booking a charter, especially if you're looking for a cheap price. And one of the most common ways to cut corners is to ignore the hours-of-service rules.

If you ever hear of a bus or truck driver being cited for "lack of paperwork", it usually means that he/she hadn't been filling out the hours-of-service logbook, and the usual reason for failing to fill it out is because he/she was trying to work a shift that violated the rules.

One of my worst tour experiences ever was last year, when a well-to-do suburban school district from Long Island hired a company that used drivers who couldn't speak or read English, and had never been to Boston. Usually I'm feeling good when a tour ends. In this case, I was unable to rest until the next day, when I could check the newspapers and verify that there hadn't been an accident -- like this one -- on their return to New York.

Although I'm not usually a religious sort, I pray for the recovery of these children and their chaperones.