A Megabus bound for Charlotte caught fire Wednesday as it traveled along Interstate 85 near the Georgia-South Carolina border. About 80 passengers were on board, according to Megabus, and none were injured.
The bus fire comes less than a week after a 25-year-old passenger aboard a double-decker Megabus was killed when the bus hit a concrete pillar on an Interstate 55 bridge near Litchfield, Ill., according to reports. Nearly 50 other passengers were injured in that incident.
The Megabus that caught fire Wednesday departed Atlanta around 10 a.m. The fire started around 11:40 a.m. as the bus traveled near Parkertown Mill, Ga. – about 100 miles northeast of Atlanta and about 150 miles from Charlotte.
“The driver was able to safely evacuate all customers from the bus,” Megabus said in a statement. Passengers were to be transported to Charlotte on a second bus, the company said.
Megabus said the cause of the fire wasn’t known and that company officials were working with authorities to investigate.
The company said the vehicle was manufactured this year, passed a “full preventative maintenance check” and had only operated another 2,500 miles since the check. Maintenance checks are performed every 10 days, according to Megabus.
Wednesday’s fire is the latest in a string of recent problems involving Megabus buses.
The Aug. 2 crash that killed University of Missouri graduate student Aditi Avhad was likely caused by a blown tire, according to reports. An investigator in Illinois told the Associated Press that there was no evidence of driver error but that a final investigation could take two weeks.
Megabus said that bus had undergone a preventative maintenance check within a week of the crash.
On Tuesday, 76-year-old Donna Halstead was killed in Chicago when she was struck by a Megabus as she walked in a crosswalk. The Chicago Tribune reported that the bus was making a turn, and its side mirror knocked Halstead to the pavement. She suffered a head injury and died hours later. The bus driver was cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, according to the Tribune. The investigation is ongoing.
Federal records show Megabus has a “satisfactory” safety rating, the highest available. But the company has been cited for safety violations in the past two years, including drivers speeding, not maintaining proper records of drivers’ hours on duty, and inoperative head and tail lights.
Earlier this year, Megabus president Dale Moser said the company exceeds safety requirements by giving drivers at least nine hours off between shifts, installing warning devices that alert the driver if the bus starts drifting and requiring two drivers on all trips from midnight to 5 a.m.
In Charlotte, the low-cost carrier runs from the transportation center uptown to Durham, Washington, D.C., and other destinations.
---http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/08/09/3440620/charlotte-bound-megabus-catches.html#storylink=cpy
