In tough economic times, college athletics departments’ use of charter buses instead of airplanes to carry athletes to away games may save money, but a report shows it’s anything but safer.
A recent analysis by ESPN’s Outside the Lines found that in 2007-8, nearly one-third of athletics programs in the NCAA’s Division I used charter-bus companies that had deficient federal safety ratings. The problems included crashes, faulty brakes, broken emergency exits, worn tires, unqualified drivers, speeding tickets, and drivers who failed to accurately log how much time they had spent behind the wheel, the study found.
Nationwide the number of crashes involving charter buses has increased, the report noted. There were 13,195 buses involved in accidents in 2007, up from 8,555 in 2003.
One of the worst bus accidents involving a college sports team occurred in 2007, when five members of the Bluffton University baseball team died after their charter bus drove off an interstate-highway overpass in Atlanta and landed on the road below.
Athletics officials had little, if any, knowledge of the safety violations, the report said. Among the 85 Division I programs that had unknowingly used bus companies with unsafe records were some of the biggest in the country, including Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and the University of Utah. —Libby Sander
