The company whose bus crashed on a Long Island school trip last week, killing two teachers and leaving five students in critical condition, has been cited for federal safety violations more than two dozen times — and was on a recent list of “unacceptable operators.”
Regency Transportation LTD has had 42 inspections of its buses over the last two years, before one careened off the I-84 on Thursday, injuring at least 40 Farmingdale High School students and faculty on their way to a band camp in Pennsylvania, online records show.
It has been cited for 25 violations since 2021 — failing five inspections in the 2023 fiscal year, according to records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Among the violations were “defective bus emergency exits,” “inoperable brake lamps” and “inoperable headlamps,” as well as oil and grease leaks, the agency records show.
Regency was placed on the state’s most recent list of “unacceptable operators” because of the failed inspections, according to lohud.com.
Bus operators are either placed in the unacceptable, acceptable or preferred category once they are rated.
The classification is meant to “provide important information to consumers so that they can make informed choices when hiring a motor coach operator,” a state Department of Transportation representative said in an email.
Bus operators with an out of compliance rate of 25% or higher based on semi-annual inspections of their vehicles land on the unacceptable list, the spokesperson said.
“And are subject to additional scrutiny and more rigorous inspections from NYSDOT until their performance record improves,” the state DOT said. “Buses that are deemed unsafe are immediately taken out of service.”
The bus involved in Thursday’s crash passed its semi-annual inspection in 2023 when it was purchased by Regency, the state spokesperson said. The vehicle, owned by a previous business, was also examined in four random roadside inspections since 2021, including once by the state DOT after the semi-annual inspection, and passed each time, the spokespersons said.
The other inspections were performed out of state.
Regency had seven failed inspections during routine, semi-annual inspections performed by the state over the last two years, the NYSDOT said. The majority of the issues were tied to braking systems on a few buses.
Those buses were pulled from service until they were fixed, the state DOT said.
A company bus was also involved in a two-vehicle crash on Long Island last year that resulted in one injury — although no citations were issued, the outlet noted.
Despite the violations and crash last year, the company still had “valid operating authority from the State Department of Transportation and a valid semi-annual inspection,” officials stated, noting that the unidentified driver from Thursday’s crash was also “properly licensed.”
Carl Berkowitz, an expert on highway safety regulations and investigations, also told lohud.com that the violations cited against Nasconset-based Regency Buses were minor.
“The buses would have been taken out of service if they were major violations,” he told the outlet.
The bus operator has eight vehicles and employs 14 drivers, the outlet said. The company did not respond to a request for comment from The Post on Monday.
Thursday’s crash came as a six-bus convoy from Farmingdale High School was taking the school marching band and several adults to a camp in Greeley, Pennsylvania.
One of the buses veered off the highway and down a 50-foot ravine shortly before 1:20 p.m.
The crash killed marching band director Gina Pellettiere, 43, and retired music teacher Beatrice Ferrari, 77, who was on the trip as a chaperone. Five students were critically injured.
The fatal crash is now being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Our goal is to find out what happened, why it happened and to make sure that something like this never happens again,” John Humm, who is leading the investigation for the agency, told lohud.
A preliminary New York State Police probe determined that a failure of the front tire may have played a role in the crash, but Humm said it’s “really premature” at this stage to say that was the cause.
