Media Contact: (360) 664-1116 or media@utc.wa.gov
Docket Number: TE-200085
King County bus company fined $13,000 for safety violations
OLYMPIA, Wash. – State regulators have ordered a King County charter bus company to pay a $13,000 penalty for more than 100 violations of federal and state transportation safety regulations.
The Utilities and Transportation Commission fined Tukwila-based Standard Parking Corporation, dba SP Plus Transportation, for 130 separate violations identified during a routine safety investigation.
In February, a UTC motor carrier safety investigator found:
- 129 violations where the company allowed its drivers to operate a commercial vehicle without a current commercial learner’s permit or a commercial driver’s license; and
- One violation for operating a motor coach with added, unsecured seating, blocking the emergency exit.
Standard Parking Corporation must pay the full penalty of $13,000.
Drivers who are not permitted or licensed to drive a commercial vehicle potentially put the traveling public at risk. Charter bus drivers require a special license to handle a vehicle of that size. A company using vehicles with added and unsecured seating puts the vehicle occupants at risk by not securing them to the vehicle in the event of an accident.
The UTC regulates the rates and services of telecommunications companies, investor-owned electric utilities, natural gas and water companies, garbage-collection haulers, household-goods movers and charter-bus companies, commercial ferries, pipeline companies, and a low-level radioactive waste repository.
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