Police Consider Issues Of Clearance, Negligence
By Lena H. Sun and Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The death toll in Friday's freeway accident involving an open-top double-decker bus rose to two last night.
Police said Michael Feiock, 35, of Centreville died at a hospital. Police also named the man who died Friday night as Joshua Stoll, 24, of Sterling.
Meanwhile, police said they are investigating whether the vehicle had enough clearance to drive under the 11th Street overpass on its way to Friday night's Washington Nationals baseball game, officials said yesterday.
The two victims, who both suffered severe head injuries, were either standing on the upper deck of the bus or standing on upper deck seats, according to D.C. Assistant Police Chief Patrick Burke.
Police also are investigating whether there was negligence on the part of passengers on the bus. There were no reported physical injuries to any of the other passengers. Burke said it was too early to know whether alcohol was a factor.
No charges have been filed.
The bus was running from RFK Stadium to Nationals Park near the Anacostia River and South Capitol Street, according to Nationals President Stan Kasten. The Nationals provide free bus service between RFK and the new ballpark.
"We do contract with an outside party to provide that service," Kasten said. "But there are several entities involved so I don't want to get into any details without them being completely correct." Police said the bus was owned by Open Top Sightseeing, a private bus company operating locally out of Tuxedo, Md. Kasten said there were no open-top buses used for last night's game. He declined to say how often open-top buses had been used in the past to transport fans.
Police said the bus was ferrying 16 people. "Everybody on the bus was on the upper deck," Burke said. "It was a beautiful Friday night. This was a very tragic accident."
The police said the accident happened about 8:32 p.m. The two men were at the front of the bus. Witnesses gave conflicting accounts about whether they were standing on the deck or on the seats, Burke said. As the bus traveled westbound on the Southeast Freeway, passing under the 11th Street bridge, the men's heads struck the overpass, resulting in massive trauma, police said.
"We're looking at what the clearance rate was between the passengers on the upper level and the bridge span," Burke said. There are no posted height restrictions for that location, transportation and police officials said.
Open-top double-decker buses must follow the same height restrictions that apply to other buses and trucks traveling in the city, according to District transportation director Emeka Moneme. In the wake of the accident, it's possible the city will "rethink where we allow open-top double-decker buses to go" in the District, he said. But city officials want to wait for the investigation to be completed first.
In some parts of downtown, open-top double-decker buses are discouraged from traveling along certain corridors because of low-lying infrastructure, he said.
Open Top Sightseeing is best known for operating hop-on, hop-off double-decker buses in Washington and San Francisco. Its regular sightseeing route in Washington starts at Union Station and makes 24 stops in Chinatown, Adams Morgan, Georgetown, Arlington National Cemetery, near the White House and elsewhere, according to the company's Web site. Tickets also are sold on the Martz Gray Line of Washington Web site.
A woman who answered the phone yesterday afternoon at Open Top's office on Tuxedo Road in Tuxedo called the incident "a horrendous accident, an isolated accident."
"We are absolutely terribly, terribly, of course, devastated by this incident," said the woman, who declined to identify herself, other than to say she was an Open Top employee. "We will in the future, of course, be issuing a comment to the media. But at this point in time we have no comment because it's too soon after the accident and the police and everything is going on and we don't really know anything at this point to release anything to the media."
The woman said no company executive was available for comment.
Staff writers Martin Weil, Clarence Williams and Steve Yanda contributed to this report.
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