Converted Bus May Offer Injured Drivers a Better Way Home

Having an accident is bad enough without having to struggle through rehabilitation in a strange hospital thousands of miles away from friends and family. So when one of Robert L. Stansell’s injured drivers was ready to leave the hospital for medically supervised recuperation, his conscience told him he had to find a way to get the driver home.

H.L Stansell Inc., the trucking company he owns in Palm Harbor, Fla., decided to take a financial hit of more than $10,000 to charter a private plane for the trip. It was the only way Stansell found to meet the needs of the stretcher-bound trucker.

But soon, there may be a less expensive option for truckers in his position.

Bobby H. Hataway, president of a nonprofit truck driver support group called TransAlive, thinks he has a solution for Stansell and other trucking employers caught in a similar bind: a specially designed bus outfitted with medical equipment that would transport recuperating workers at a cost far less than by plane.

Hataway came up with the idea last year after Stansell asked him to use his contacts within the industry to borrow a large trucking company’s private jet to fly his driver home. Their efforts ran into problems when company lawyers balked at the legal liabilities of lending a plane to transport a patient.

That’s when Hataway realized a bus could do the job just as well and less expensively. So, the ideal of an “amcoach,” or ambulance coach, was born, with the hope of having it on the road by the end of this year.

Plans call for equipping it with a bed and medical equipment for patients as well as a kitchenette and living quarters for the bus drivers, medical staff and family members accompanying the trucker.

For the full story, see the August 23 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.