Fatal gap in safety revealed
THE CHARTER bus driver involved in Monday’s fatal Queens crash should have been banned from driving buses in New York because of his drunken driving conviction in Connecticut.
But because the state relies on bus companies to self-report their drivers’ histories — and Dahlia Group Inc. didn’t bother to do that — driver Raymond Mong was at the wheel at 6:16 a.m. Monday plowing into an MTA bus.
Driver Raymond Mong, 49, and two others died in this tragic collision. On Tuesday, federal and state authorities started the tedious process of finding out how that came to be.
A key issue is how Mong — who for a time was required by the courts to use a breathalizer device to start his private car — was able to remain employed as a bus driver.
The state Department of Transportation, which regulates these companies, only inspects vehicles and doesn’t check drivers’ records.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles is only aware of incidents that occur in New York State. Mong’s conviction took place in Connecticut.
Instead, the DMV relies on bus companies to provide them with a full job history and criminal record of all drivers. In Mong’s case, he was fired from his job as an MTA bus driver shortly after the agency learned of his April 2015 Connecticut arrest.
“DMV has no record of being notified by Dahlia Transportation of Mr. Mong’s status as a driver for Dahlia at the time of the crash, as required by New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law,” said DMV spokeswoman Tiffany Portzer.
Anyone convicted of leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in injuries is barred in New York from driving a bus for five years.
On Tuesday, state officials said the bus Mong was driving passed its DOT inspection Aug. 28. Results of a toxicology test on Mong have yet to be released.
The state DOT has the authority to shut down Dahlia. On Tuesday, a spokesman, Joseph Morrissey, declined to comment on what, if any, action the DOT will take regarding Dahlia pending the outcome of the investigations. OUTRAGE AND GRIEF sparked a sad search for answers Tuesday, a day after a speeding tour bus rammed an MTA bus filled with passengers during a deadly crash in Queens.
Angry lawmakers and heartbroken family members said someone needed to explain how a driver with a DUI arrest and a license suspension on his record was allowed to get behind the wheel of a mammoth bus .
Raymond Mong, the charter bus driver who died in the crash that killed two pedestrians Monday, couldn’t start his own car for months without blowing into a breathalyzer device.
He was ordered to use the ignition interlock breath test as part of his probation, lawyers said.
But there he was, behind the wheel of a Dahlia Travel and Tours bus, traveling 57 mph in a 25 mph zone along Northern Blvd. in Flushing, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
He flew through a red light before plowing into an MTA bus in a horrific collision, that injured 17 people in addition to the fatalities.
“They took away my husband, I can’t get him back,” said Audris Liljefors, 61, whose husband, Gregory Liljefors, 55, of Flushing, was on the sidewalk when the tour bus plowed through.
“Someone has to follow up . . . I mean, not to take away their livelihood, but if the only way to stop them is shut them down, then .... ”
Liljefors was leaving his job on the overnight security shift at Prince Plaza condominiums in Flushing, Audris Liljefors said.
“I’m having him cremated according to his wishes, and he is going back to Hawaii,” she said. “That’s where I’m from. He said, ‘I want to go home with you,’ so he’s going.
“I’d do anything for him. He stuck it out with me for 27 years.”
Another fatal victim, Henry Wdowiak, 68, of Flushing, was crushed between the tour bus and a building, a police source said.
Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez called for a hearing into the crash, a redesign of the intersection and for the NYPD to step up traffic enforcement.
“How can we prevent this?” asked Rodriguez, chairman of the transportation committee. “This is like a cycle. Every two to three years, there is one of those charter buses crashes where people have lost their lives.”
Meanwhile, Robert Accetta, the NTSB’s investigator in charge said the agency will be looking at Dahlia’s driver’s logs, vehicle inspections and maintenance and operating procedures to see whether fatigue was a factor.
It was not clear if Mong was driving while impaired. The city’s medical examiner’s office said toxicology results on Mong would not be available for six to eight weeks.