Band Tragedy

[CODI]

I saw on the national news the other evening about a high school band who was involved in a tragic accident that killed, I believe some members and also some staff. My Prayers are with them and their families.

My question to the body is, "Does anyone know if DCI has some type of rule or regulation that prohibits the amount of traveling a corps can do in a 24 hour period, and also another important question since a majority of the buses are owned by the corps, how often are they "PM"! Brakes tested, tires inspected, stuts, etc.

I remember following one of the 27th Lancer buses up Comm. Ave. in Boston on its way to the CYO, and you would have thought there was a 727 jumbo jet in front of you with the black smoke coming out of the exhuast and also it was leaning to the left, and if it was the Titanic, it would have been sinking. This bus was heading out on tour. I don't think I would want to have my child on that piece of equipment.

Is anyone privied to this type of info.

CODI

[ssorrell]

For the very few years that Spirit actually owned our own buses (1981-1985), we had some very old and crappy pieces of machinery, BUT, the folks that maintained them, kept them running, AND drove them...I'd trust with my life.

And I did.

I don't know if DCI has any regulations, but anyone with a CDL is limited to the amount of time behind a wheel during a week...I think. My brother in law is an over the road driver and he can only drive a certain amount of hours at a time and per week.

[SoonerFan04]

A lot of corps charter busses now...

I'm not sure how it is with other charter companies, but with ours after our bus drivers drove all night to the next housing site after a competition, they left one bus there and drove the other one to a nearby hotel where they would spend the next day sleeping while we were in rehearsal. The hotel rooms were part of the fee the corps was paying the charter company I believe. We wouldn't see them again until about an hour or two before time to leave for the show site where we would perform, get back on the busses that night and start the whole process over again. The company was in charge of keeping the busses in good shape and obviously they had a minimum amount of sleep the drivers were required to get during the day and a maximum number of hours they could drive that night. We also switched drivers about half-way through the season

Aside from that, the busses we used were in excellent condition - inside and out. There was never a time in the 2 years I have marched so far where I felt unsafe travelingover night, or traveling at any other time for that matter.

[Tapper]

You get everything from great to scary! Like the poster above, more and more corps seem to be using charter services and that has resulted in better equipment, and possibly more adherence to the DOT rules on miles/hours in a day or week.

Its tough for a corps to own their own equipment and still be able to keep it in top condition, while chartering busses can be more expensive, it can also be a safer bet. A charter bus blows a transmission and you are out a few hours time while they get a replacement. Blow a transmission on a bus you own, and the pricetag can start at 10K and go up from there. That is in addition to the time the bus is down as well.

Some groups who charter somehow get the drivers to stay with the corps and sleep in the "traditional" drivers room. Dont know how they pulled that off, but you gotta give them credit for being able to.

I have driven just about every year since 92 and have never heard of DCI having a rule to limit the amount of traveling. The closest I can recall is a story with Star where they had a driver who went over the 8 hour driving limit that was imposed by Bill Cook (at the time one of the rules from DOT limited driving to no more than 10 straight hours). As the story goes, once Cook found out, the driver was let go and the message was sent. Nobody drives more than 8.

We seem to have come a long ways over the years. I can still remember the first big (national) tour I was on. 84 VK with Nelson Smith driving one of the old submarines.

Thom

member, alumni, driver, fan

[mace]

... The closest I can recall is a story with Star where they had a driver who went over the 8 hour driving limit that was imposed by Bill Cook (at the time one of the rules from DOT limited driving to no more than 10 straight hours). As the story goes, once Cook found out, the driver was let go and the message was sent. Nobody drives more than 8....

member, alumni, driver, fan

That is one Star story I haven't heard, but it sounds JUST LIKE Bill Cook:

Endanger the kids and you're OUT OF HERE!

[oldtimedrummer]

I saw on the national news the other evening about a high school band who was involved in a tragic accident that killed, I believe some members and also some staff. My Prayers are with them and their families.

My question to the body is, "Does anyone know if DCI has some type of rule or regulation that prohibits the amount of traveling a corps can do in a 24 hour period, and also another important question since a majority of the buses are owned by the corps, how often are they "PM"! Brakes tested, tires inspected, stuts, etc.

I remember following one of the 27th Lancer buses up Comm. Ave. in Boston on its way to the CYO, and you would have thought there was a 727 jumbo jet in front of you with the black smoke coming out of the exhuast and also it was leaning to the left, and if it was the Titanic, it would have been sinking. This bus was heading out on tour. I don't think I would want to have my child on that piece of equipment.

Is anyone privied to this type of info.

CODI

The rules on travel come from the DOT, not DCI, and are the same for all commercial drivers. All drivers must keep daily log books and show their on-duty time as well as their sleep time. A driver is only allowed to be on duty, I believe, for 11 hours before they must stop to sleep. IMO, one of the reasons DCI did away with retreat was to allow drivers a quicker departure to the next housing site . If you leave a housing site for a contest site at say 6:00 pm, then you are considered on duty and only have 11 hours to complete your trip, which means you must be to your next housing site by 5:00am. This isn't easy if you have a four or five hundred mile trip. All busses must pass an annual state inspection in order to get their license plates. Also, drivers should do a walk around bus inspection before every trip.

Edited October 23, 2005 by oldtimedrummer

[Cru2u]

The rules on travel come from the DOT, not DCI, and are the same for all commercial drivers. All drivers must keep daily log books and show their on-duty time as well as their sleep time. A driver is only allowed to be on duty, I believe, for 11 hours before they must stop to sleep. IMO, one of the reasons DCI did away with retreat was to allow drivers a quicker departure to the next housing site . If you leave a housing site for a contest site at say 6:00 pm, then you are considered on duty and only have 11 hours to complete your trip, which means you must be to your next housing site by 5:00am. This isn't easy if you have a four or five hundred mile trip. All busses must pass an annual state inspection in order to get their license plates. Also, drivers should do a walk around bus inspection before every trip.

Well, you have most of the info correct.........when I drove charter buses and drum corps buses as a volunteer it was 10 hours driving and actually 13 hours on duty which meant you could be somewhere sitting while your group did there thing and still make it back without being in violation. You also were not required to fill out a log book if your were within 100 miles of your homebase or operating a non-commercial bus which what was the case with any drum corps owned bus.

I started my career in 1981 on a 1960 GMC 5 speed silver bullet that was owned by the Cadets of Greece who donated their services later in 1984-5 to the DutchBoy organiuzation to haul kids from NYS that wanted to march with them because we had gone inactive here. While highly maintained there were problems that faced us while on tour with some mechanical difficulties but we made it thru..... It was an experience, to say the least!

The longest I ever was on a bus was taking a group of Canadian spring breakers from Ottawa who met us at the Massena Bridge and we went straight thru to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla......2 drivers ......required to "bunk" in a sleeper berth after being behind the wheel for 10 hours. As a safety feature the driver and I switched off every 4-5 hours and made it in 26 hours from a cold beginning at 5 degrees and ending up in Fla at 10 pm at 58 degrees with the funniest scenerio of me ripping off my coat and watching floridians walking around in ski parkas!!!LOL! B)

[GWFrog]

Howdy!

The accident; details & discussion...

'Til later... B)

[harrold99]

In Holland, and i think it's a regulation all over Europe, all the buses have this device that registrates the amount of hours a driver is on the road. For instance: when a driver drives for 8 hours, he has to take off for at least 3 or 4 hours.

If not, there is a bog fine for the buscompany.

ne time, we hired a bus, did the performace and then heard from the driver he wasn't allowed to drive anymore. We had to wait for 2 hours untill another driver arrived.....

Ofcourse, in the US it takes like 6 or 7 hours to visit your parents, from here i could be in eithe, Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris or London. ####, Europe is small :-)