Help Further Our Reporting on Bus Crashes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
If you are a current or former FMCSA employee, or someone in the industry with information about the agency or the safety of school buses, transit buses or motor coaches, our team wants to hear from you. Willoughby Mariano can be reached by phone at 617-358-0802, Signal at willoughbymariano.55 and email at wmariano@bu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n The deadly crashes associated with Transdev span at least 16 states and involve pedestrians, at least two bicyclists and other vehicles. Lens\u2019 death and at least two others have resulted in criminal charges against the bus drivers. Transdev did not provide comment on any specific crash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crash data feeds into FMCSA\u2019s online Safety Measurement System<\/a>, which makes safety records public for bus companies nationwide. Instead of listing Transdev, that data often lists collisions under the government agency that hired Transdev or the name of a company it acquired. Also, when crashes are listed under other names, companies that oversee the buses involved are not required to claim the collisions. The agency\u2019s instructions for how to determine the motor carrier involved in a crash are interpreted differently by police who respond to the scene, the news organizations found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based in France, Transdev has vast U.S. operations. It says it holds contracts in busing, light rail and other forms of public transit in 46 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The multibillion-dollar company employs more than 30,000 people nationally. Transdev\u2019s only school bus contract is with Boston Public Schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Transdev U.S. CEO Laura Hendricks declined an interview. In a written statement, Transdev said it complies with \u201cfederally mandated reporting standards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTransparency and continuous improvement are central to our safety approach, and we work closely with oversight agencies and our clients to ensure our practices meet or exceed expectations,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The statement did not respond to questions about why Transdev did not ensure crashes the company was involved in were logged as part of its safety record. It did stress that reporting crashes is the responsibility of law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the publications\u2019 request, Transdev reviewed lists of the crashes that reporters tied to the company. Transdev confirmed that most of them matched with collisions in their records but did not have records for all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The FMCSA did not respond to requests to interview Derek Barrs, the head of the agency, or emails with a list of questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other than the federal database, there are few ways to connect crashes to particular bus companies. A different database, run by the Federal Transit Administration, records transit crashes but doesn\u2019t connect them to contractors. Separately, FMCSA requires all bus companies to keep an internal register of how many serious crashes take place during their operations. However, those records are not open to the public, and companies are not obligated to submit the information to regulators unless they ask for it. Transdev declined the publications\u2019 request for its register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So while Transdev may know about its own collisions, federal agencies and the public often don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Darin Jones, a former FMCSA Midwest field administrator, spent more than 35 years in federal transportation safety and often oversaw investigations. He said investigators are supposed to consider a company\u2019s serious crashes as part of their assessment. If many are logged inconsistently, they cannot determine whether Transdev or any other company is operating safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u200aThe knowledge of this motor carrier\u2019s operation, any motor carrier\u2019s operation, is critical,\u201d said Jones. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the full picture of an operation, how do you truly know what\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least in Boston, Transdev appears to have had no serious school bus crashes over 10 years. But that\u2019s not true. WBUR and ProPublica uncovered at least 71 serious crashes involving the company that weren\u2019t under its name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kurdock says the FMCSA needs to fix its safety data, especially in Boston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe \u200aagency needs to be much more proactive in ensuring that the data they do have is accurate, even more so when you\u2019re talking about a carrier that is operating a transportation service for schoolchildren,\u201d Kurdock said. \u201cIf there is one bipartisan issue left here in Washington, D.C., it\u2019s that schoolchildren should have a safe ride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2016, about two-thirds of Transdev\u2019s 60 fatal crashes have appeared in federal safety data under the names of a company it acquired or agencies that contracted with them. Click a state to see more details about the Transdev crashes we found there and how they were recorded in the federal database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n When a crash happens, local law enforcement fill out accident reports that document the location, identities of the drivers and companies involved. This information becomes part of the federal safety database and helps regulators connect a crash to a particular company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the news organizations found multiple examples where that system masked the company running the bus lines. For most of these crashes, the database is also unclear on whether the drivers violated traffic laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Lens\u2019 case, the motor carrier is listed as \u201cCITY OF BOSTON MVMB,\u201d an abbreviation for the city\u2019s Motor Vehicle Management Bureau, which acquires and manages municipal vehicles. There is no mention of the school district or Transdev being involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another crash killed registered nurse Ren\u00e9e Shea in southern Massachusetts in 2017. It appears under the name of the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority, not Transdev, the agency\u2019s contractor at the time. A bus made a left-hand turn into the path of the Jeep SUV she was driving, according to a police report. The bus company\u2019s driver, Margaret Correia, may have been distracted because she began to take off her jacket before she made her turn, the report found. She could not be reached for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Correia pleaded guilty to misdemeanor negligent operation of a motor vehicle, court records show. A GATRA spokeswoman said Shea\u2019s family received $1 million from the area transit agency\u2019s insurer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charlie Shea said his ex-wife was a generous mother who had taken custody of her granddaughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a former MBTA bus driver, Charlie Shea said he continues to be shocked by the bus driver\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Driving and taking your jacket off \u201cain\u2019t a bright idea for anybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said his ex-wife\u2019s death, like all crashes, needs to be part of Transdev\u2019s safety record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019d make them more accountable,\u201d Shea said. \u201cThey would have to use their safety records to get contracts from the state or the counties or from schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside Massachusetts, there are dozens of other fatal Transdev crashes in the database with no mention of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a November 2023 Las Vegas crash, federal records list the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada as the motor carrier of a transit bus that killed bicyclist David Ortiz in a crosswalk. Court records state driver Johnelle Johnson, a Transdev employee, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge. A lawsuit by Ortiz\u2019s family against Transdev and the driver was settled for an undisclosed sum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transdev has operated the Las Vegas-area bus system since 2023, when it acquired First Transit, which originally held the contract, the commission\u2019s records show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although First Transit is now part of Transdev, at least five fatal crashes across the United States are still recorded under First Transit\u2019s name after the acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond the fatal crashes, WBUR and ProPublica also took a close look at all of Transdev\u2019s serious, but nonfatal, crashes with Boston Public Schools. Those include crashes where any person was transported to a hospital or a vehicle was towed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a December 2024 crash, a bus lurched onto a sidewalk outside Curley K-8 School in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood. The bus struck an 8-year-old boy with autism and his school aide before smashing into two fences, a police report states. The crash sent both victims to the hospital with long-term injuries, their civil lawsuits against Transdev allege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A bus camera showed that Transdev driver Vitony Laguerre\u2019s eyes were closed and his head was back before he pressed the accelerator, police stated. He pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of negligent operation of a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n The federal record lists the city of Boston, not Transdev, as the carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attorneys for Laguerre and both crash victims did not comment for this story. Laguerre and Transdev denied they were negligent in the crash, according to records in an ongoing civil case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper declined an interview request. A spokesperson did not answer a list of questions, but in a written statement said that the district follows established safety protocols and has worked with Transdev over several years to improve accountability and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will continue to work with our transportation partner to monitor performance, address issues as they arise, and ensure every student gets to and from school safely,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current system of collecting and publishing bus crash data began as part of a federal push for safer roads. In the early days of this work, in the 1970s and 1980s, rules put the burden on bus and truck companies to self-report serious crashes to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Each operator had to report its fatal bus crashes in person or by telephone \u201cas soon as possible\u201d; crashes that resulted in injuries or serious vehicle damage had to be reported in writing, and in triplicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But both companies and federal safety investigators complained the process was burdensome and inadequate. For one thing, investigators could not tell whether companies failed to report their accidents, said Jones, the former FMCSA regional administrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regulators and traffic safety researchers thought they could do better. At the time, many states were already collecting crash information electronically from local police departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy burden the industry with reporting?\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe had a more accurate record from the states.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So in 1993, the federal Department of Transportation decided to end self-reporting by carriers. Today, local law enforcement agencies send their bus and truck crash information to state agencies, which submit it to FMCSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After investigating, a local officer must fill out a form that asks for the name of the bus company, or \u201ccarrier,\u201d that is involved in the crash and the company\u2019s U.S. Department of Transportation identifier. FMCSA training material recommends the officer determine which company should be included in the form by figuring out which entity \u201ccontrols\u201d or \u201cdirects\u201d the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For transit and school buses, this decision can be surprisingly complicated. Transdev employees may be behind the wheel, and the company may manage the daily operations of the buses, but the transit agencies or a school district may choose the routes. So who is in charge? In these cases, Transdev\u2019s role often disappears in the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transportation experts and former FMCSA officials said bus companies can voluntarily inform the agency that crashes under other names belong to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Alex Scott, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville transportation expert, said companies rarely update the federal record, according to research he published in 2021. \u201cThere\u2019s not really an incentive for them to account for all of their crashes,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIf a company could just magically make them go away, of course they would.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy, a former teacher for the district where Lens attended school, has become a vocal critic of how Transdev operates its buses. She was shocked when she learned from a reporter that the company is not required to take steps to ensure all its crashes are part of its federal safety record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHorrifying,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy would they be able to not report accidents \u2014 one that was a fatal accident? There\u2019s nothing worse than a fatal accident.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s not really an incentive for them to account for all of their crashes. \u2026 If a company could just magically make them go away, of course they would.\u201d<\/p>Alex Scott, a transportation expert at University of Tennessee, Knoxville<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n After several passenger bus crashes with multiple fatalities, Congress passed legislation in 2012 that gave FMCSA powers to conduct more comprehensive inspections into the safety operations of bus companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Transdev underwent one of these reviews in 2016, investigators uncovered what they described as \u201cnumerous crashes\u201d that were not listed as part of the contractor\u2019s safety record, according to the inspection report. There were enough crashes that the FMCSA planned to give Transdev a \u201cconditional\u201d safety rating, which would mean the company had insufficient safety procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because local police departments may not \u201cbe aware or equipped\u201d to report crashes to the FMCSA, the carrier should report them, the report stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis self reporting is required for accurate evaluation by FMCSA and the accurate safety record of the carrier,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company successfully appealed the decision to lower its safety rating by arguing its drivers could not have prevented many of the crashes investigators uncovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FMCSA investigators urged Transdev to report to the agency when its role in a crash is not reflected in safety data, yet the company\u2019s name continues to be absent from many of them. Transdev did not comment on this recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lens\u2019 death last year became a local flashpoint, shedding new light on Transdev\u2019s safety procedures and raising questions about its ability to keep the city\u2019s children safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0409_school-bus-safety01_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752\")
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<\/figure>\nTransdev Crashes Across the Country Were Recorded Under Different Names<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Nurse, Cyclist Among Those Killed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\nListen to WBUR’s Story<\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Local Law Enforcement Takes Over<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A Father Seeks \u201cJustice\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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