NTSB: Deadly School Bus Crash Driver In Baltimore Unfit For Job
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- For the first time, the National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that all new, large school buses be equipped with lap-shoulder seat belts, saying it was time to stop tip-toeing around the issue. However, the agency doesn't have the power to order safety fixes.
The recommendation came as a sidebar to the release of the probable cause of the 2016 fatal collision between a school bus and a Maryland Transit Administration bus in Baltimore. The crash killed both drivers and three passengers aboard the transit bus.
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According to the NTSB, the cause was "the loss of vehicle control due to incapacitation of the bus driver, because of a seizure stemming from a long-standing seizure disorder."
The NTSB also found that school bus driver, Glenn Chappell, hid his illness when applying for commercial drivers licenses -- even using fake names and addresses.
RELATED: NTSB Releases New Photos, Details Of Deadly Baltimore School Bus Crash
The agency also found a lack of oversight by the school bus company and Baltimore schools "allowing the medically unfit driver to drive a commercial vehicle with a medical condition that they knew or should have known."
NTSB investigators reported co-workers had seen Chappell suffer siezures and discovered the driver had previously been involved in other accidents, with at least one the result of a siezure.
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