STA reopens investigation into double-decker bus crash in downtown Spokane
Spokane Transit Authority is reopening its investigation into the January double-decker bus crash that injured seven people, only three days after it announced a final report.
On Jan. 18, an STA driver took a 13½-foot-tall double-decker bus into the 12-foot-tall Cedar Street railroad viaduct, hospitalizing seven and causing more than $450,000 in damages when it slammed into the bridge. Responding officers found no sign of impairment.
STA confirmed in the report released Friday that the onboard navigation software had routed driver Wayne Morgan down Cedar Street, rather than Route 6’s intended path under the Jefferson Street viaduct, The Spokesman-Review first reported Jan. 20. Multiple buses experienced similar issues, according to the agency’s Friday release.
STA CEO Karl Otterstrom said in a news release Monday that the agency learned Monday that a call had been made to the dispatch warning of the problems with the navigation system on the day of the crash.
“In light of this discovery, we are reopening the investigation and working to understand how the call to dispatch factors into the accident and the investigative findings, including what dispatch did with the information from the call,” Otterstrom said in the statement. “Furthermore, we will pursue an independent review to validate the investigation’s completeness. More information will be provided as the review moves forward.”
In the report issued Friday, STA found no deficiencies with its own policies, procedures or training leading up to the double-decker crash.
Instead, the agency blamed driver and technological errors, 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 confirmed on Friday that Morgan remains on administrative leave, but added that the agency did not intend to disclose if he is ultimately fired.
The agency does not plan to release the full investigation, Cortright said last week. She and other agency officials otherwise declined to provide comment on the summary released Friday.
The agency claims the mapping error was caused by a software defect and that STA personnel had correctly input all routing data. Trapeze Software is the vendor of the TransitMaster navigation system used on the agency’s buses.
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.
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 with posted heights 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 its taller hybrid electric buses from 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 returned to service Feb. 21 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.