E PLURIBUS UNUM

NATIONAL TRA SPORTATION

B OARD

SAFE T Y

N 

 National Transportation Safety Board Washington, DC 20594

 Highway Accident Brief

Accident No.: HWY-01-F-H010 

Accident Type: Single vehicle run-off-road rollover 

Location: U.S. Route 101, San Miguel, California 

Date and Time: January 2, 2001, about 8:05 a.m.

Vehicle Involved: 2000 Krystal Enterprises, Inc., 31-passenger bus attached to a Ford Motor 

Company F-550 XLT Super-Duty chassis manufactured with seating for a 

driver and a front-seat passenger 

Owner: West Valley Charter Lines, Inc. 

Operator: West Valley Charter Lines, Inc., busdriver 

Operation: Transporting children to California School for the Deaf in Fremont, 

California 

Vehicle Damage: Front end and right front of roof crushed and passenger-side roof shifted 

toward driver’s side 

People on Board: Driver and five passengers 

Injuries: Two fatal, two serious, and two minor 

Accident Description 

On January 2, 2001, about 1:30 a.m., the West Valley Charter Lines (West Valley) 

busdriver arrived at the bus yard in Campbell, California, and conducted a safety inspection of 

the bus. The weather was clear and dry. The driver departed the bus yard about 2:00 a.m. and 

traveled approximately 22 miles to the California School for the Deaf, Fremont (CSDF) in 

Fremont, California, to pick up an adult student aide (see figure 1 for route map). They departed 

CSDF about 2:45 a.m. and drove to San Luis Obispo, approximately 200 miles south of CSDF, 

taking a half-hour break in King City. The bus picked up one student in San Luis Obispo, 

departing about 7:15 a.m., and two more students in Atascadero, 17 miles north of San Luis 

Obispo, departing there about 7:45 a.m. The bus then traveled approximately 10 miles to Paso 

Robles, where one student boarded the bus. The driver said that, about 8:00 a.m., they left Paso 

Robles, where he reentered U.S. 101 northbound and set the cruise control at 70 mph (the posted 

speed limit was 65 mph). The driver stated that he had a limited recollection of events beyond

that time. The accident occurred about 8:05 a.m.

1 NTSB/HAB-02/01 
San 

F i

Sacrament

Los

A l

0

0

10

10 20

20 Miles

30 Kilometers

Monterey

Campbell

(2:00 a.m.)

San Luis Obispo

(7:15 a.m.)

Atascadero

(7:45 a.m.)

Paso

Robles

(8:00 a.m.)

San Miguel

(8:05 a.m.)

101

101

101

San Francisco

680 880

Fremont

(2:45 a.m.)

Pacific Ocean

S

F

B

a

y

Santa

Cruz

17

Figure 1. Accident trip route. 

Physical evidence from the scene indicated that the bus departed the right side of the

road, crossed the asphalt shoulder, and struck the terminal end of a W-beam breakaway cable 

guardrail. Tire marks on the shoulder leading to the guardrail indicated a departure angle of

approximately 4 degrees. The bus then clipped the end of the concrete bridge rail and plunged 

about 23 feet to the roadway below. The bus began to roll, and the right front of the bus struck 

the roadway below. The bus continued to roll and turn toward the right after impacting the 

ground and came to rest on its left side, having rolled 270 degrees and yawed (rotated laterally) 

180 degrees. 

 

Two passengers were ejected and came to rest underneath the bus, sustaining fatal 

injuries. Three passengers remained inside the bus; two sustained serious injuries and one

sustained minor injuries. The driver, who was wearing a lap/shoulder belt, sustained minor 

2 NTSB/HAB-02/01 
injuries. Only the driver seat and right-front passenger seat were equipped with lap/shoulder 

belts. 

Motor Carrier and Route Operations 

CSDF contracted with West Valley, as well as with three other carriers, to provide 

transportation for residential students to their homes on weekends and holidays. West Valley is 

registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as a for-hire interstate passenger

carrier. West Valley is also registered with the California Highway Patrol as a School Pupil 

Activity Bus (SPAB) and Tour Bus Operation, which California Education Code 39830.1 defines 

as: 

... any motor vehicle, other than a schoolbus, operated by a common carrier, or 

by and under the exclusive jurisdiction of a publicly owned or operated transit 

system, or by a passenger charter-party carrier, used under a contractual 

agreement between a school and carrier to transport school pupils at or below the 

12th grade level to or from a public or private school activity, or used to transport 

pupils to or from residential schools, when the pupils are received and discharged 

at off-highway locations where a parent or adult designated by the parent is 

present to accept the pupil or place the pupil on the bus.

As of December 8, 2000, the State of California had registered 1,671 SPAB vehicles. 

West Valley received a terminal inspection from the California Highway Patrol on August 2, 

2000, which resulted in a satisfactory rating of both the SPAB and tour bus operations. The 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration conducted a compliance review of West Valley’s 

operations on April 16, 1999, resulting in a satisfactory rating. 

The route taken by the accident bus was normally scheduled for Sundays. The driver and 

student aide customarily departed the school about 11:30 a.m. and began picking up students at 

3:50 p.m., arriving at CSDF about 7:30 p.m. Sunday night in time for Monday classes. However, 

in this case, the schedule was modified to accommodate the New Year’s Day holiday, which fell 

on a Monday. Thus, student pickup began instead on Tuesday morning around 7:00 a.m., with 

arrival at CSDF occurring about 11:00 a.m. to accommodate the 12:30 p.m. Tuesday start time. 

The contract stated that a student aide would ride on the bus during the trip. 

Since the accident, the owner of West Valley said that the company has made a concerted

effort to inform its drivers about fatigue, routinely providing information on its effects. In 

addition, West Valley now has a policy of using only drivers with night driving experience for 

routes that require such experience. The company also gives drivers several days off prior to 

driving at night, so that they can adjust their sleep/wake cycles. 

Driver 

At the time of the accident, the 69-year-old driver possessed a valid medical certificate 

and a valid commercial driver’s license with a passenger endorsement and a SPAB certification.

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California Education Code 39830.1 describes the requirements for a SPAB certification as 

follows: 

The driver of a school pupil activity bus shall be subject to the regulations 

adopted by the Department of the California Highway Patrol governing schoolbus 

drivers, except that the regulations shall not require drivers to duplicate training or 

schooling that they have otherwise received that is equivalent to that required 

pursuant to the regulations, and the regulations may not require drivers to take 

training in first aid. However, a valid certificate to drive a school pupil activity 

bus does not entitle the bearer to drive a schoolbus. 

SPAB drivers are required to complete 10 hours of recurrent classroom instruction or behind-thewheel training each year. The training consists of, but is not limited to, current laws and

regulations, defensive driving, accident prevention, emergency procedures, and passenger 

loading and unloading. 

Staff and California Highway Patrol officers interviewed the driver. The driver had not 

driven a bus since December 19, 2000, when he returned from a 4-day interstate trip. The driver 

stated that on both December 30 and 31, 2000, he was off duty and awoke about 7:00 a.m. and 

went to bed about 11:00 p.m. On January 1, he awoke about 7:00 a.m. and planned to “take it 

easy” during the day because he knew he had to work at night. That night, he went to bed about 

5:00 p.m. and got up about 11:00 p.m. He said his sleep was restful although sporadic, noting “I 

wasn’t really that tired.” He also said that, as usual, he got up a couple of times because of

prostate problems, for which he was taking medication.1

 He ate a meal about 11:30 p.m. and then

left the house about 1:20 a.m. to pick up the bus at West Valley. 

Toxicological tests conducted on the driver’s blood did not reveal the presence of alcohol 

or drugs. 

Nonconforming Buses 

In the 1970s, the U.S Department of Transportation enacted school bus occupant crash 

protection standards to safeguard children being transported to and from school or school-related 

activities. Nonconforming buses—that is, vehicles used for student transportation that meet the 

Federal definition of a bus2

 but are not required to meet the Federal occupant crash protection 

standards for school buses, such as the SPAB vehicle involved in this accident (figure 2)—do not 

have comparable crashworthiness and occupant protection standards. 

 

 

1

 The driver had prescriptions for Terazosin for prostate problems and Atenolol for high blood pressure. However, no evidence of these drugs was found in his blood or urine. Furthermore, neither drug would have contributed to

drowsiness. 2

 The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (49 CFR 571.3) defines bus as a motor vehicle designed to carry more

than 10 persons and school bus as a bus that carries students to or from school or school-related activities. 

4 NTSB/HAB-02/01 
Figure 2. Body damage to nonconforming bus involved in San Miguel accident. 

For its 1999 special investigation of nonconforming buses,3 the Safety Board investigated

four accidents. Nine people were killed and 36 were injured in these collisions. Most of the 

victims, including the eight fatalities, were children. 

The nonconforming buses involved in these four accidents did not and were not required

to meet the Federal school bus occupant crash protection standards, which require that all school 

buses have roof rollover protection, energy-absorbing seats, and greater body joint strength than 

most types of vehicles. Had school buses been used in the four accidents, the vehicles probably

would have sustained less intrusion damage, and the passengers may have suffered fewer and 

less severe injuries. 

The States, which are responsible for enforcing the use of school buses, in most cases 

require that children be transported to and from school only on buses meeting Federal school bus 

crashworthiness standards. However, California allows the use of nonconforming buses for

school activities or for transporting students to residential schools through the SPAB program. 

 

3

 National Transportation Safety Board, Pupil Transportation in Vehicles Not Meeting Federal School Bus

Standards, Special Investigation Report NTSB/SIR-99/02 (Washington, DC: NTSB, 1999). 

5 NTSB/HAB-02/01 
As a result of the Safety Board’s investigations and report, the Safety Board 

recommended that California (and all States) require that all vehicles carrying more than 10 

passengers and transporting children to and from school or school-related activities meet Federal 

school bus structural standards. California did not respond to this recommendation, nor has the 

State changed its policy on the use of nonconforming buses for student transportation; thus, the 

recommendation was classified “Closed—Unacceptable Action—No Response” on April 25, 

2001. The bus involved in this accident is yet another example of a nonconforming vehicle that 

was not built to the more stringent structural standards applicable to buses used to transport 

children to school. This accident confirms the Safety Board’s earlier finding that the best way to

maximize pupil transportation safety is to require the use of school buses or buses built to 

equivalent occupant crash protection standards. 

Probable Cause 

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the 

accident was driver fatigue. Contributing to the accident was the transportation schedule 

established by the California School for the Deaf, Fremont, and a lack of knowledge by the 

driver of the effect of inverted sleep/rest cycles. Contributing to the severity of the injuries

sustained in this accident was the use of a nonconforming bus for student transportation. 

Adopted: February 19, 2002

6 NTSB/HAB-02/01