The bus traveling from Chicago to Atlanta Monday was about 15 miles south of Indianapolis on Interstate 65 when the driver failed to stop soon enough for stalled traffic and ran into the back of a semi-truck.
In December, a Megabus flipped onto its side in slippery conditions on I-65 not far from Monday’s accident, sending 26 to the hospital, according to the Indianapolis Star.
Monday’s accident occurred around 6 a.m. Indiana State Police Capt. David Bursten said traffic was stopped for highway construction equipment that was being moved to the median. The bus was loaded with 63 passengers, Bursten said.
No citations had been issued by Monday afternoon, but Bursten said driver inattention could be a reason for the crash.
“If there is traffic stopped in front of you and you failed to stop, that would indicate some factor affecting the attention of the Megabus driver,” he said. Alcohol use was not a factor in the crash, he added.
None of the injuries is life-threatening, Bursten said. The bus, semi-trailer, an SUV and a passenger vehicle caught up in the chain-reaction accident were rendered inoperable by the crash, Bursten said.
Megabus accidents have taken a toll on the low-cost carrier, according to news reports. Television station 5 NBC in Chicago reported that authorities investigated 16 Megabus accidents in the U.S. from 2012 through 2014. The accidents injured 12 people.
Perhaps the worst accident involving the carrier was the Sept. 11, 2010, early morning crash of a Megabus into a low railroad bridge on the Onondaga Lake Parkway in New York. Four were killed.
Syracuse.com reported that the driver told police he’d taken a wrong turn and was using his personal GPS to try to get back on track. But using a personal GPS was against Megabus policy that drivers only use the bus’s GPS, which takes into account bridges that are too low for the tall buses to drive under.
Sean Hughes, Director of Corporate Affairs for Megabus.com North America, said the company is helping to investigate Monday’s crash.
“Safety is our number one priority and Megabus is fully cooperating with the authorities with their investigation into the incident,” Hughes wrote.
Hughes said Megabus has scored highly on a safety audit by the independent Transportation Safety Exchange, which inspects and rates the safety performance of motor carriers.
All the double-decker buses have safety belts installed, Hughes said.
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