Is it legal to drive a Bus with passengers on with no reverse gear?
jellybean59 asked:
Apparently there was a long wait for the gear part to arrive so we had to drive this one bus with no reverse gear for nearly 2 mths! We were told to make sure not to get up close to anything and that it was not a legal requirement for buses like it is for cars. Can anyone out there tell me if this is the case. Even our union rep said it was legal. Sounds wrong to me, would appreciate someone with the correct legal knowledge please to answer. Thanks.
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Apparently there was a long wait for the gear part to arrive so we had to drive this one bus with no reverse gear for nearly 2 mths! We were told to make sure not to get up close to anything and that it was not a legal requirement for buses like it is for cars. Can anyone out there tell me if this is the case. Even our union rep said it was legal. Sounds wrong to me, would appreciate someone with the correct legal knowledge please to answer. Thanks.
July 7th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Not against the law but certainly stupid and, in the event of an injury or accident, very likely a lawsuit against the company and the driver who knew about the condition but drove it any way. Don S
July 7th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Without knowing what city/state/country you’re in, no one can tell you. But I can’t imagine a bus with no reverse gear would pass inspection, and putting passengers on a bus that can’t pass inspection is probably illegal everywhere. ssmesq
July 9th, 2010 at 4:15 am
There is no legal requirement for any vehicle to be fitted with a reverse gear, it’s a convenience. Show me a site which says otherwise. “isitme”
July 11th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Commercial vehicles are regulated differently than private cars. You probably won’t find a law that says specifically a vehicle is required to have a reverse gear. But I’m sure you’ll find a law that the vehicle must be fully operational with all of the lights, horns and other devices to make it safe to operate. It’s part of the daily pre-trip inspection. If your vehicle gets into a situation that you have to reverse and the police on the scene finds that you cannot go into reverse, he can and probably will take the vehicle out of service. Especially a school bus. If a school bus can’t clear RR tracks and reverse is the only option, the driver has some serious issues to deal with. Although a school bus should never be in a position to be stranded across RR tracks.
I couldn’t find a law, but that’s not to say that a law doesn’t exist. Dan B