Highway Accident Report

On November 14, 2004, about 9:30 a.m., eastern standard time, a 44-year-old bus driver departed the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, operating a 2000 Prevost, 58-passenger motorcoach owned by Eyre Bus Service, Inc., (Eyre) for an approximately 60-mile trip to Mount Vernon, Virginia. This vehicle was the second one of a two-bus team. About 10:40 a.m., the bus was traveling southbound in the right lane of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Alexandria, Virginia, at an electronic control module-recorded speed of approximately 46 mph. Upon approaching the Alexandria Avenue bridge, the bus driver passed warning signs indicating that the bridge had a 10-foot, 2- inch clearance in the right lane. The driver remained in the right lane and drove the 12-foot-high bus under the bridge, colliding with the underside and side of the overpass. At the time of the accident, the 13-foot, 4-inch-high left lane was available to the bus, and the lead Eyre bus was in the left lane ahead of the accident bus. Witnesses and the bus driver himself reported that the bus driver was talking on a hands-free cellular telephone at the time of the accident. Of the 27 student passengers, 10 received minor injuries and 1 sustained serious injuries. The bus driver and chaperone were uninjured. The bus's roof was destroyed.