Crews work at the Megabus crash site Saturday afternoon
/ file photo
SYRACUSE -- Did the driver of the Megabus that crashed Saturday into the Onondaga Lake Parkway railroad bridge violate the state’s anti-texting law?
As the investigation into the accident that killed four people continues, Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh tells CNY Central’s Jim Kenyon that investigators are looking into whether the driver of the bus was distracted by a GPS device. Walsh says John Tomaszewski told deputies he listening to directions from his personal GPS just before crashing into the railroad bridge.
The Sheriff says investigators are trying to determine if Tomaszewski may have been trying to program the device while he was driving. If so, Walsh says the driver may be charged with violating the state’s anti-texting while driving law. Walsh says that law not only applies to cell phones, it also applies to other electronic devices. However, if the driver was simply listening to directions from the GPS, that may not be a violation.
The Vice President of Coach USA, which owns Megabus, tells CNY Central that the company has its own GPS system installed on the buses but they are only used by the company to keep track of the locations of their vehicles. Don Carmichael also confirms that Tomaszewski has been suspended from the company pending the outcome of both internal and official investigations into the deadly crash.
A meeting between Sheriff’s investigators and the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office slated for Tuesday has been postponed until toxicology results are available.
Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney has written to the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council asking for an immediate safety study of the Onondaga Lake Parkway, which has been the scene of numerous accidents near the railroad bridge.
Director James D’Agostino says the Council just received Mahoney’s request and will contact the State Transportation Department which owns the parkway. D’Agostino says the council has studied the parkway in the past. He says in the 1990s the Council came up with recommendations to route commuter traffic away from the road by either utilizing the New York State Thruway north of Liverpool, or directing traffic onto Old Liverpool Road.
D’Agostino says those recommendations were not well received by the thousands of commuters who use the Onondaga Lake Parkway everyday. An average of 12,525 commuters use the northbound lanes of the Parkway every day, which head from Syracuse to Liverpool. The southbound lanes average 10,900 cars per day.
So we want to know what you think. Should the state's anti-text messaging whiel driving laws cover GPS devices as well? What should be done to protect motorists from crashes on the Onondaga Lake Parkway? Leave a comment below and join in on the discussion.
