At 10:50 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2003, a motorcoach carrying 14 passengers struck a tractor-trailer on the shoulder of Interstate 20 near Tallulah, LA. As a result of the accident, eight of the motorcoach passengers were fatally injured, while the driver and six other passengers were seriously injured.
According to the 2014 Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts published by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), it was one of 288 fatal crashes involving a bus that year, which is about normal for the period of 1997 to 2006 when the average was 293. The overall number of bus occupant fatalities and total fatalities in bus crashes for 2003 was also close to the average for 1997-2006, so why did this particular accident warrant an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)?
When a church bus carrying senior citizens is involved in such a devastating crash, the 24-hour news cycle is going to pick up the story. Media outlets from around the world reported on the events of Oct. 13, and that type of coverage is going to draw the wrong type of attention from regulators. On April 19, 2005, NTSB released its report on the Tallulah motorcoach accident and revealed that the vehicle had been equipped with tires that were limited to 55 mph. While NTSB acknowledged that the speed-limited tires did not contribute to the accident, it recommended that FMCSA revise the standards to ensure that commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) are operating on tires with appropriate speed ratings.
NTSB discovered that there were no state or federal inspection guidelines or regulations for commercial vehicles that addressed speed-limited tires. NTSB concluded that, “because the commercial vehicle inspection criteria…(does) not address the identification and appropriate use of speed-limited tires, they overlook an important vehicle safety factor and can result in commercial vehicles intended for highway use being operated with tires not suited for highway speeds.”
In the same recent Federal Register notice that defined a major tread groove, FMCSA addressed the issue by adopting new language in Sec. 393.75 that prohibits the use of speed-restricted tires labeled for 55 mph or less on vehicles that operate at speeds that exceed the rated limit of the tire.
It also amended Appendix G to prohibit the use of speed-restricted tires unless the motor carrier specifically designates speed-restricted tires, which means every CMV must be examined for the use of improper speed-restricted tires at least once a year.
For 99% of the trucking industry, nothing changes. The default speed limit for most truck tires remains 75 mph unless designated otherwise. If inspectors conduct a roadside inspection and discover speed-restricted tires, then the inspector “will be prompted to confirm with the motor carrier that the use of such tires (speed-restricted) is appropriate for the specific vehicle.”
In other words, if the truck has tires labeled with a maximum speed of 55 mph, then the operator must prove that it never exceeds those limits. Transit buses, waste haulers, and heavy construction vehicles can easily make that claim. Over-the-road vehicles and motorcoaches that spend most of their time at highway speeds in excess of 55 mph cannot.
The requirements in FMVSS No. 119 only require a label on the sidewall when the speed is restricted to 55 mph or less. These tires will be easy to identify and in most cases, a roadside or annual inspection is going to reveal whether they are appropriate for the vehicle. The changes could have gone a little deeper and required the maximum rated speed limit on every tire, but FMCSA felt that given the small percentage of speed-restricted tires (less than 2%) and limited applications, the new language was sufficient.
