Bus breakdown strands 52

Some travelers who left the driving to Greyhound weren’t satisfied with the result.

A bus traveling from Western Montana to Spokane broke down Tuesday night and stranded 52 passengers 68 miles short. It was more than seven hours before a relief bus from Greyhound arrived.

Because of the unexpected bus layover at the truck stop in Idaho’s Silver Valley, a Navy officer was being considered AWOL, a respiratory therapist had to cancel her hard-to-get shift and Seattle resident Ron Hitlall, who took the bus to avoid airport chaos, regretted his choice.

“It’s not so bad for an adult having to wait,” said Hitlall, who usually flies when he travels. “It’s more about how the people with kids were treated. There wasn’t an emergency backup. The bus was carrying everybody, not just adults.”

Navy Petty Officer Robert Hess was headed to his base in Oak Harbor, Wash., after spending Christmas with family in Montana. He was expected to report to duty early Wednesday.

“Hopefully, they will be understanding,” Hess said. “I’m sure they will call Greyhound to make sure my story is true.”

About 11:25 p.m. Tuesday, during a stop in Smelterville, the passengers learned the transmission had gone out.

The truck stop restaurant was closed, lodging was nonexistent and junk food at the gas station convenience store was the only nourishment available.

“There were little kids and senior citizens – it was hard on everybody,” said Jerry Fiddler, a Spokane resident. “We either had to be in the bus or in the store.”

Most adult passengers eventually left the bus to give mothers with children a place to rest, Hitlall said. “The rest of us didn’t sleep.”

Spokane resident Guy Larabee said Greyhound initially told the driver a second bus would arrive within an hour and a half. Instead, it arrived at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

“The bus was sent to pick us up, but it went the wrong way,” he said.

Speaking from his Texas office, Greyhound spokesman Dustin Clark initially wouldn’t speculate about why it took seven hours to travel the 68 miles.

Clark said Greyhound dispatched a bus from Spokane within an hour of finding out the passengers were stranded.

While the passengers were waiting, Hitlall found the customer service number for Greyhound.

“I called to file a complaint then just passed the phone around to others who wanted to complain,” he said. “A dispatcher hung up on one person.”

Clark said he wasn’t familiar with those calls.

“We encourage all our customers who have problems to file a complaint,” Clark said. “We take every complaint seriously and investigate it fully.”

Customers said that as of midmorning Wednesday, no one had been compensated for their inconvenience.

Tim Taylor, who drove the bus from Montana, was a hero to the unhappy travelers.

“He tried to find someone to come get us,” Hitlall said. “He tried to keep our – and his – spirits up.”

By the time the relief bus driver arrived at the truck stop to pick up the stranded passengers, she’d been driving so long that regulations prevented her from continuing. So it was Taylor who drove the group into Spokane.

The new bus was designed to carry only 47 passengers, so “some people had to stand up,” Fiddler said.

The group arrived about 9 a.m. Wednesday. For some, Spokane was the destination, while others were headed to various cities throughout the state.