Megabus is facing more public criticism after one of its buses driving through Indiana was taken out of service for safety reasons.
The incidents follows several crashes in the state, including one as recent as Tuesday.
Indiana State Police placed a Megabus out of service Wednesday after a trooper stopped the bus for speeding and leaning to the right. The bus, which had 67 passengers on board, was heading from Chicago to Atlanta when the trooper noticed it was leaning to the right and going 67 mph in a 55 mph zone on eastbound I-80/94.
The driver, 47-year-old Damaris Hussain of Chicago, told the trooper she was aware the bus was leaning to one side.
ISP Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division inspectors placed the bus out of service for suspension failure, a defected bus emergency exit and unsafe operations. They found the three airbags on the right rear axle were deflated which caused the axle to not offer any support to the bus.
The bus was escorted to a truck stop where the passengers waited to board a replacement bus. That bus arrived shortly before 12:30 p.m. and the passengers were able to resume their trip.
Inspectors also noted other violations including the Hussain‘s pre-trip inspection and an air leak in the rear brakes. Hussain was ticketed for speeding and suspension failure.
Megabus is already facing two lawsuits for separate crashes on Interstate 65 in Indiana. The first occurred near Greenwood in October and the second near Seymour on December 20.
A third crash occurred Tuesday on the Indiana Toll Road near the Illinois border. The driver, 63-year-old Albert Jackson of Richton Park, Illinois, failed to slow down for traffic which had stopped for an earlier fatal crash, according to State Police.
The bus collided with an SUV then hit two more vehicles, the last of which collided with another car. The driver of one of the vehicles and his wife, both in their late sixties, were taken to North Lake Hospital in Gary with non-life-threatening injuries.
None of the 80 passengers on board the Megabus were injured.
Regarding one of the lawsuits, a circuit court judge in Chicago has granted an emergency protective order over the crash near Seymour.
Attorney Thomas Zimmerman filed the lawsuit on Christmas Eve on behalf of a passenger, Dyrell Lee, who was injured December 20 when the Megabus in which she was riding crashed on I-65 near Seymour, injuring numerous other passengers as well.
The judge granted the emergency protective order Monday in order to preserve evidence, including the bus itself. The protective order requires the bus, all video and data recorders, radio transmissions, electronic communications and other evidence from the crash be stored in a secure location to prevent it from being altered or destroyed while the case is in litigation.
Lee was heading to her home in Georgia when the bus crashed. Zimmerman says she suffered personal injuries, financial damages and subsequent medical expenses.
