The Mother’s Day crash of a charter bus in New Orleans prompted Rep. Frank R. Wolf to redouble his efforts to clean up the federal agency that monitors truck and bus safety.
Key to the cleanup, Wolf believes, is the transfer of the motor carrier office out of the Federal Highway Administration.
Two days after the crash, in which 22 passengers lost their lives, the Virginia Republican sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater complaining of the lack of industry oversight and urging him to take swift action.
“How many more must die in carriers regulated by the Office of Motor Carriers before your department will take action to move the OMC from under the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration?” Wolf wrote to Slater about the May 9 accident.
Slater’s office had no comment on the letter about transferring OMC, which is now known as the Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety.
Wolf has been recommending such a move since last summer, but in recent months, as congressional hearings have focused on issues related to highway safety, he has toned down his public calls for the transfer.
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