SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Transit Authority is once again investigating the double-decker bus crash that sent seven people to the hospital.
STA originally closed the investigation and released its findings March 20. Now, four days later, new information has come to light, causing the agency to reopen the investigation.
STA’s initial investigation revealed that one of the reasons for the crash was problems with the bus navigation system. Now STA has learned it wasn’t just the double-decker bus with this problem, but another bus that drives the same route.
“Communication between a bus driver and dispatch had been not flagged properly as potential material to investigate further,” said Karl Otterstrom, CEO of Spokane Transit Authority.
According to STA, on the morning of January 18, another bus driver on the Spokane to Cheney route called dispatch to report the navigation system on board was showing incorrect directions.
The recently reopened investigation is taking a look into what dispatch did with that information.
“Through the course of that day, they’re making judgment calls all the time and how to triage and how to address those things,” Otterstrom said. “But we will be reviewing the responsiveness at the time and how that was handled. And what processes or systems were in place or should be in place in the future.”
The investigation is also looking at why this problem seems to be specific to the Spokane to Cheney routes.
“It appears it was the same sort of problem. Whether it was kind of simulating the same errors exactly, we don’t know at this point that’s going to be part of this effort to understand,” Otterstrom said.
While this investigation is reopening, some of the information in the initial findings still stands true. This crash was due in part to human error. STA said the bus driver did not follow the physical copy of directions he is trained to follow, and did not report any navigation system problems.
STA is also opening an independent review of the investigation process to learn why this phone call was just now discovered.
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