More than a dozen people were taken to hospitals Friday after their airport shuttle rear-ended an 18-wheeler.
The operator of the hotel shuttle bus has had a number of violations recorded in the last two years, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
The tractor-trailer was making a legal U-turn on Loop Road just south of the Virginia Avenue exit from I-85 when the shuttle collided with the trailer, College Park Police Sgt. Keith Stanley said.
“The shuttle was not able to stop,” Stanley said.
College Park-based MTI Limo & Shuttle Services Inc., the operator of the shuttle, has had several violations reported to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The company, started in 1990, operates limousines and shuttles with a fleet of luxury sedans, stretch limousines, vans, Lincoln Navigators, mini-buses, limo-buses and luxury motor coaches, according to its website.
In Friday’s accident, police said none of the 15 passengers on the bus were wearing seat belts, he said.
“With that kind of vehicle, anything in the rear could be thrown to the front of the bus,” he said. “If there were seatbelts available in the bus, the passengers should have been wearing them.”
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records for MTI Limo & Shuttle show that of 13 relevant inspections, 11 resulted in vehicle maintenance violations in 2011, ranging from defective or lacking bus emergency exits that led an inspector to put the vehicle out of service to problems with emergency exits or emergency exit markings, for example.
During one 2011 inspection, a driver was put out of service for not carrying a medical certificate.
A May 2011 crash of a bus operated by MTI Limo in Sandy Springs, resulted in three injuries, according to the online report. The report does not indicate who was at fault.
Six people from Friday’s accident, including one child and the driver of the shuttle bus, were taken to Atlanta Medical Center, hospital officials said. All but two adults were released, and they remain in stable condition.
“The driver had to be extricated from the vehicle,” he said. “She suffered multiple fractures.”
Ten people, including a 12-year-old boy, were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Four were treated and released and three more passengers were admitted to the hospital to be treated for their injuries, hospital officials said.
The 12-year-old is being held for observations, hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson said. The other two passengers were still being evaluated and receiving care, Simpson said Friday afternoon.
The truck driver was not injured, police said.
It is unclear how fast the shuttle bus was traveling on the 45-mph Loop Road at the time of the wreck, but Stanley said the bus skidded 158 feet before hitting the left side of the trailer.
“The vehicle was going at a good rate of speed,” he said.
MTI Limo & Shuttle owner Mike Toye said he has no comment, pending the outcome of the investigation of the accident.
According to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, all shuttles operating at the airport except for the airport’s own park-ride shuttles are managed by independent operators. To get a permit to operate at the airport, the companies must have proper credentials from the Georgia Department of Public Safety or Department of Transportation.
The Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Airport North and the Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta Airport North I-85 said the hotels’ will continue using MTI Limo & Shuttle for airport transportation, pending results of the accident investigation. The shuttle also serves the Fairfield Inn & Suites Atlanta Airport North.
The wreck was reported at about 10 a.m., police said. The ramp from I-85 northbound to Loop Road was shut down for several hours by the crash, but the road and ramp reopened shortly before 1 p.m.
Police continue to investigate the accident.
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