Six new RFTA buses will comply with federal safety standards that could have helped passengers in a Highway 82 rollover crash.
The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority has budgeted five million dollars to purchase six new buses in 2016.
In November 2013, just one month after a crash on Highway 82 sent passengers through the windows of a RFTA bus, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration upgraded seatbelt requirements for commuter motorcoaches.
The new law came from a study that found that 70 percent of bus-accident fatalities are due to ejection from the vehicle. A jury this month found RFTA responsible for 50 percent of the passengers’ injury claims. The bus hit a barrier and rolled after the driver swerved to avoid a slow moving tractor. The driver, Jaime Nunez, was the only one wearing a seatbelt and was not taken to the hospital that night. Six of the eleven passengers were thrown from the bus. The force of the crash sent one woman through the window where she ended up pinned between the bus and a guardrail.
The new regulations do not apply to school buses or to urban-transport buses.
