Moser asserts - and federal transportation records seem to support - "that we are a safe company. We're not a fly-by-night company."
The government's current rating of the low-cost bus line - derived from compliance-review results, random roadside-safety inspections, and its crash history before the crash - is "satisfactory," said Duane DeBruyne, spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation assisting in the accident investigation.
At Megabus, however, the crash already has the company "reviewing all policies relevant to this particular incident," Moser said, including driver training.
"We're trying to make sure we have every bit of evidence before we rush into any type of conclusion," said Moser, a former school bus driver who has led CoachUSA for five years.
Yet some Megabus riders who contacted The Inquirer after the crash contend there is already enough evidence that the company's drivers need more training.
A common theme in the passengers' accounts was drivers getting lost. Indeed, authorities have said, that's how Megabus driver John Tomaszewski, 59, of Yardville, Mercer County, wound up on Onondaga Lake Parkway in the Syracuse suburbs, headed for a bridge that would shear the roof off his vehicle shortly after 2:30 a.m. Sept. 11.
On July 28, Philadelphian Paul Lucre, 41, said, he fell asleep on a Megabus bound for Toronto and was stunned when he awoke to find the vehicle way off course in Harrisburg. On Aug. 25, Brad Wilson, 47, of Philadelphia, said, he was on a Megabus that "wandered around" Syracuse for two hours before the driver stopped at a gas station for directions to I-481.
