Spokane Transit Authority finds no internal deficiencies leading up to double-decker bus crash

The Spokane Transit Authority found no deficiencies with its own policies, procedures or training leading up to the January double-decker bus crash into a downtown Spokane railroad viaduct, according to an internal investigation whose findings were partially released late Friday afternoon.

Instead, the agency blamed driver and technological errors for the crash, pointing to a faulty mapping system that the driver became aware of earlier in the shift but failed to report to administrators.

The report did not state whether STA would replace the mapping system, which had been known previously to be error-prone; instead, STA wrote it would monitor the software’s performance. Agency spokeswoman Carly Cortright wrote that the driver, 65-year-old Wayne Morgan, remains on administrative leave, but added that the agency did not intend to disclose if he is ultimately fired.

“We know transparency into the circumstances behind this unfortunate accident are important for our community,” STA CEO Karl Otterstrom wrote in a prepared statement.

The agency does not plan to release the full investigation, Cortright added. She and other agency officials otherwise declined to provide comment on the summary released Friday.

On Jan. 18, Morgan drove the 13½-foot-tall double-decker bus into the 12½-foot-tall Cedar Street railroad viaduct, hospitalizing seven and causing more than $450,000 in damages. Responding officers found no sign of impairment.

For the first time, agency officials confirmed Friday that onboard navigation software had routed Morgan down Cedar Street, rather than Route 6’s intended path under the Jefferson Street viaduct, which The Spokesman-Review reported on Jan. 20. Multiple buses experienced similar issues, according to the agency’s Friday release.

The agency claims the mapping error was caused by a software defect and that STA personnel had correctly input all routing data. Trapeze Software, vendor for of the TransitMaster navigation system used on the agency’s buses, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Morgan reportedly noticed these mapping problems earlier in his shift but did not contact STA dispatch about the apparent error before the crash, according to the agency summary.

It took roughly three and a half hours after the crash before the agency told its drivers to temporarily stop using the computer mapping software, which the report does not mention. Agency officials initially stated this message only went out to the drivers of double-decker buses; Friday’s report states computer routing was disabled across the entire fleet.

The report also states Morgan did not respond to posted height-clearance warnings; it does not mention the six other STA routes that, as a matter of course, had been traveling under two viaducts whose posted heights were shorter than the stated height of the buses, saved by margins of error in the listed heights of each. In some cases, this practice had gone on seemingly for years, suggesting some drivers regularly missed or ignored clearance signs.

After the double-decker bus crashed, the Spokane Transit Authority reviewed the signage and heights of all downtown viaducts and removed these six routes, Cortright noted at the time.

“No deficiencies were identified in agency policies, procedures, or training,” the agency wrote Friday.

Double-decker buses were returned to service Feb. 17 with additional safety measures, including height awareness training, temporarily disabling the faulty navigation systems, safety stops before driving under viaducts and increased communication with dispatch. The agency will reintroduce digital routing “following validation.”