Feds want authority to randomly inspect tour buses

Feds want authority to randomly inspect tour buses

online.wsj.com

WASHINGTON — Federal officials are asking Congress to give them authority to randomly pull over tour buses on the highway in an effort to catch rogue carriers who use a variety of schemes to evade safety enforcement.

Anne Ferro, who heads the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, told a House panel on Monday that her agency is forbidden from making such checks now.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is a bit overkill. I think there is a solution, but it is not what this government official is asking for. The solution that I can see is very simple. Install a pass system in buses and require they pull go through truck inspection stations. If they evade the inspections station they could be pulled over.

I think the amount of illegitimate bus companies out there is probably a need for concern; however, police already have authority to pull over a bus that is not in compliance with bus codes. What purpose does being able to randomly pull over tour buses serve, when other less intrusive options are available?

online.wsj.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

ya know I read on another thread
that somebody claimed that they
thought the gov was just trying to make
us revolt. I am just about to
believe it.

Your papers please !!!

reply to post by boondock-saint


That's the idea, press until they squeek.
Trick is to take a step to the side and watch em go over the cliff.
It will happen soon enough, people don't work for free forever!

Having been a long haul trucker for 15 years prior to recently learning I was diabetic, I really have no problem with this if it is specifically meant to cover roadside safety inspections and not wholesale searching/inspecting passengers. We have enough harassment by security of all kinds for little or no reason as it is. However, I very often ran from Missouri to California and back again without crossing an open scale or being bypassed on every one of them. That really isn't uncommon. Now for a bus, if they simply plan their trip with that in mind, they can easily bypass almost any scale in the United States. There are a couple that are BIG exceptions to that and no realistic way around them exists. (Truckee, California comes to mind as a fine example) Those only represent a handful nationwide though and even they do close from time to time.

Random checks at least give state and local law enforcement the ability to catch them when the scales are unmanned or the buses are using routes that don't cross one.

Surprise... could it have something to do with this?

Tour bus company shut down after driver let SIX people travel in luggage compartment

Not saying it's true.. but I wonder... is it a coincidence??

let's start with a tour bus.

then it will be buses.

then it will be vans.

then it will be YOUR car.

HELL NO.

We already have illegal sobriety and seatbelt roadblocks in my state....

PAPERS, SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS

reply to post by JacKatMtn

Probably has to do with this -

Concern about tour bus safety has spiked since March, when a bus returning passengers to New York's Chinatown after a night of gambling ran off a highway, killing 15 passengers and injured 18 others.

In May, a crash on I-95 killed four and injured more than 50 others. The company that owned the bus, Sky Express, has been banned from operating bus travel but subsequently tried to reopen under a new name and with repainted buses. Both the bus driver and the company had a history of safety violations.

source
I've been on the highway with these buses - they really are dangerous. They supply transportation at very low cost and skimp on repairs/maintenance in order to do so. They hire drivers with bad records because they're cheap. This one might actually be a real safety issue.

THIS is intrusive:

Security Checks on Boaters Disrupt Idyllic Life on the Hudson

ny times

reply to post by ExPostFacto


More double speak by the feds with co-joined reasons which make no sense. All vehicles are required to renew its license every year. Tour buses would also be required to obtain a business license every year. It is stated this is for safety reasons. What safety reasons? If it were due to mechanical operation a simple mandate that would require a safety inspection before issuing the auto license or business license. When they pull these tour buses over are they going to have a licensed mechanic with them? I didn't know law enforcement are now trained to check to mechanical failures.

Originally posted by Signals

We already have illegal sobriety and seatbelt roadblocks in my state....

PAPERS, SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS

Here too, plus more.

We also have "occupancy permits" we have to keep available both renting folks and homeowners.. which are a listing of each person in your home and who is the head of your household and the relation of each person to the head and ages. We also have FOID cards ( photo ID that is linked to your drivers license on the database) that list our firearms.. even long guns. Your ammo is logged.. though not on the database yet... as far as I know. I go to Missouri to buy ammo! LOL! The police can enter your home without cause and check to see who is there and if they are on your occupancy permit. Their legal "cause" is to check this illegal unconstitutional occupancy permit. They did this in a "clean sweep" in an area that was high crime with a database search for those who are questionable.. warrant or not.. the occupancy permit safeguarded any illegal entry issues.. and the citizens here praised it. The media ate it up with glee. The decision was great and the pathetically slim collection of criminals was praised. They are doing their job.. right?

Wait till they do it to the non high crime areas.. will there be an outcry? Its always okay to do it to the "other guy". WHat youre not told in the articles is that they not only went door to door, but they went in the doors of people who were NOT listed on the warrant database. The articles are cleverly worded.

blogs.riverfronttimes.com...

Officers went door-to-door looking for violators, unregistered sex offenders, drugs and illegal guns.

www.stltoday.com...

running plates.. and checking interior of car.. you must comply. They chase you down if you decide not to participate in the checkpoint and try to turn your car around. I just dug these up as they were there when I google searched, but they go on pretty often. Our last one was memorial day weekend. They call them motorist safety checks!
local.nixle.com...
local.nixle.com...

Most times when you try to find original articles to these events, our local paper 404s them

I dont live somewhere like Chicago.. I live in nowhere Southern Illinois.. Im sure the stats have changed somewhat and there are a lot of rentals.. so the pop fluctuates.Population in July 2009: 41,285. Population change since 2000: -0.3%.. and spread out over a large area of 5 zipcodes. We here are already suffering the "wildings" and mob actions, and have for 2 yrs now, though its worse this year.Its only a matter of time until this gets too out of hand, but the citizens here seem to think that locking down into a police state is the way to handle it.. and they support it!

We were transfered here... trust me, Im doing my best to get the hell away from this ridiculous place. We live in a nanny state and a police state already. Show me your papers is alive and well in this country, but no one seems to notice or care. If I posted our data and demographics youd get a real eyeopener.. just how and why this was done.. and is done so often with the praise of the citizens. They just condition you to accept it. Im not from here and I think its a bunch of BS. The citizens here are so complacent.. they arent sheep.. theyre more like a school of fish chasing a shiny lure.

How did someone illegally import a Double Decker tour bus into America?

Non-DOT legal for use on American highways. Remember the story where it slammed into a bridge because it was too high?

How come the Fed's allowed that NON-US Spec Tour bus into America?

If the Federal Government can't keep a British Double Decker Tour Bus from being imported into the United States.....ain't no way they can do anything.

The Fed's failed.

Sure, why not. Hell, let's create a new agency for it with a blank-check budget like every other random, barely justifiable idea we finance on a whim.

Originally posted by boondock-saint
ya know I read on another thread
that somebody claimed that they
thought the gov was just trying to make
us revolt. I am just about to
believe it.

Your papers please !!!

edit on 6/13/2011 by boondock-saint because: (no reason given)

Wonder if it was me in the thread about Oscar Grant.

Cause I do feel like they are pushing us in that direction, controlling the opposition (us).

Many of these Tour bus companies get shut down for buses that are unsafe only after a major accident.

Then some have reopened within a couple weeks under new company names and new paint jobs.

Even if the government does not shut them down after a major accident many transfer title of the buses to a new company name and file bankruptcy of the old company name just to beat the lawsuits from the accidents.
www.dailymail.co.uk...

Uh, excuse me. Could you please reiterate why it's in my best interest to have a government agency stopping tour buses? Oh, that's right, silly me, It's for my safety.

William Wallace: It's all for nothing if you don't have freedom.

Originally posted by Advantage

Originally posted by Signals

We already have illegal sobriety and seatbelt roadblocks in my state....

PAPERS, SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS

Show me your papers is alive and well in this country, but no one seems to notice or care.

That's because we drink the fluoride, take our Prozac, watch our 3D television and take our Ambien to go to sleep. THX1138, do you need to be punished for drug evasion?

Sorry to say but I'm about to give up on the human race as a total failure, save for a select few. You know who you are.

reply to post by Signals


This is exactly what I was thinking. I have no doubt there are legitimate concerns with bus companies and safety. When leaders though jump to the most intrusive action first without considering the impact on civil rights their decisions have, then we risk after something like this is passed, random stops on trains, planes, automobiles, and people walking down the street. Someone once said we are headed to be searched each and every time we leave our home. Imagine random stops and searches on people seen leaving their home.