State Suspends Bus Line License
The state Public Utilities Commission suspended the operating license of a Sacramento-area commuter bus line Thursday for failing to properly maintain its vehicles.
The emergency order, issued in San Francisco, effectively shuts down about 25 buses run by Commuter Bus Lines Inc. in the Sacramento area. The firm also operates about 50 buses in the Long Beach area, but those routes are not covered by the order.
The order was the result of a California Highway Patrol report to the commission stating that CHP inspectors had found “numerous” safety violations on buses at the firm’s West Sacramento maintenance facility.
No such violations were discovered at the company’s Southern California maintenance facility in Lynwood, according to the PUC and officials of the firm.
“We’ve had no problems here,” said the line’s Southern California manager, Jim Carson. “We didn’t respond fast enough in Sacramento to the CHP,” he said.
The commission action means that about 3,000 commuters in 10 counties around Sacramento will have to find alternate means of commuting as of today.
Eldon M. Johnson, an attorney for Commuter Bus Lines, said the PUC overreacted to the firm’s difficulties in Sacramento. Johnson said the company will probably ask for another round of inspections and a rehearing by the commission.
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