NEW YORK CITY \u2014 When a double-decker sightseeing bus driver ran a red light and smashed into an MTA bus July 6, injuring 67 people, longtime licensed tour guide Brendan Rothman-Hicks wasn’t surprised, he told Patch. <\/p>\n
“It could have happened on a tour I was on,” he said. “To be perfectly honest, I think some of the drivers were just reckless.”<\/p>\n
Rothman-Hicks recalled the “countless times” that bus drivers ran one or more red lights during tours when he worked for a double-decker sightseeing company.<\/p>\n He’s not alone in his concerns.<\/p>\n Multiple tour guides who spoke to Patch roundly criticized the three companies running New York City’s double-decker sightseeing buses for a poor focus on safety.<\/p>\n Their concerns are echoed by lawmakers and advocates pushing legislation to mandate staffing on upper levels of the buses. <\/p>\n And tourists themselves have flooded sites such as Tripadvisor with bad and “scary” reviews. <\/p>\n One reviewer wrote a double-decker driver threw them off the bus after her 8-year-old boy checked for seats on the top level because there was no air conditioning.<\/p>\n “He yelled and made threats while edging closer to strike us,” the reviewer wrote.<\/p>\n “STAY FAR AWAY!” another wrote after recounting an experience in which a bus hit a car.<\/p>\n Fred Pflantzer knew double-decker tour companies were trouble even before he learned bathroom break cuts had drivers sometimes urinating in a hole in the back of buses.<\/p>\n A longtime city sightseeing guide who now owns NY See Tours, Pflantzer said his stint working for double-decker companies showed the experience leaves much to be desired, for passengers and guides alike.<\/p>\n Double-decker buses are notorious for not having heat in winter, or air conditioning in summer, he said. Employees couldn’t take bathroom breaks, forcing some drivers to do their business into a hole near the engine in back, he said.<\/p>\n “They were just tremendously abusive to all their employees,” Pflantzer said. “And they had absolutely no concern for the guests on the bus.”<\/p>\n The double-decker sightseeing niche in New York City tourism has traditionally been carved out by three companies: Big Bus, Gray Line and TopView, which all failed to return Patch’s requests for comment.<\/p>\n Their pitches to tourists are all similar: see all of New York City’s biggest attractions from a bus that’s an experience in itself for $49 on up.<\/p>\n “TopView offers the best New York sightseeing bus tours led by local experts so you won’t miss the most important attractions,” reads that company’s website.<\/p>\n But there’s a broad gulf between those promises and reality, said James Hoffman, a New York City sightseeing guide.<\/p>\n Like other guides who spoke with Patch for this story, Hoffman worked for one or more double-decker companies during his career. <\/p>\n The past tense in “worked” is deliberate \u2014 several double-decker tour companies shifted to pre-recorded audio guides, Hoffman said.<\/p>\n This means bus drivers now shoulder responsibilities, from handling tickets to answering questions about the tours, that once fell to guides, Hoffman said.<\/p>\n The drivers even have to cue up the pre-taped tour recordings to be in sync with where they’re driving, all while they’re behind the wheel in heavy Manhattan traffic, he said. <\/p>\n They should be entirely focused on driving and keeping people safe, said Hoffman.<\/p>\n “The general culture of putting profits ahead of consumer protections or safety issues is a problem in the double-decker bus industry,” Hoffman said. “A lot of these companies don\u2019t have a symbiotic relationship with New York City, they have a parasitic one.”<\/p>\n All the guides who spoke with Patch were curious about the exact circumstances behind the July 6 double-decker crash, which involved a bus from TopView.<\/p>\n When asked for an update on the crash investigation, NYPD officials directed Patch to a news conference shortly after the incident and said the double-decker bus driver \u2014 a 53-year-old man \u2014 received a summons for disobeying a steady red light.<\/p>\n Officials have said the double-decker driver ran through the red light about 7 p.m. at East 23rd Street and First Avenue and T-boned an MTA bus. The crash left 67 people injured and 32 hospitalized, officials said.<\/p>\n “I thought, ‘Oh my God, those poor people,'” Pflantzer said. “They\u2019re in a panic and there\u2019s no one to guide them.”<\/p>\n Double-decker Rider Heidi D. watched in dismay as her bus in Chinatown and drove the wrong way on one-way streets late at night, she told TripAdvisor in an April to review of TopView. <\/p>\n “Very scary and disappointing experience,” Heidi wrote. “When I asked for a refund due to safety issues, the request was denied.” <\/p>\n She’s not the only rider to bring complaints to the tourism review sight. <\/p>\n TripAdvisor ratings for the three double-decker bus companies in New York City generally hover between three and four stars \u2014 normally a tourism kiss of death in a system where anything less than five is considered negative.<\/p>\n More formal concerns are documented in “Thrown Under the Bus”, a 2017 study by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal recirculated after the weekend’s crash. <\/p>\n The report outlines several significant crashes that left passengers and pedestrians with serious head injuries, mangled limbs and other trauma.<\/p>\n The state has little to no enforcement power over the buses, operators are under no obligations to report crash data and double-decker drivers are exempt from laws that ban convicted sex offenders or drunken drivers from driving other similar vehicles, the study found.<\/p>\n “What we found was alarming,” the study states. “These vehicles are operating in an environment of legal loopholes, ambiguous jurisdiction and lax enforcement.”<\/p>\n Patrick Casey, a secretary for the Guides Association of New York City, told Patch he too tried and failed to find recent data about crashes involving double-decker buses. <\/p>\n Casey blamed the gray area in which double-decker buses operate. <\/p>\n He argued the industry needs legislation focused on worker and consumer safety, especially now that bus drivers are in charge of everything, including the ongoing flow of pre-recorded audio tours.<\/p>\n “That’s a disaster now waiting to happen,” Casey said.<\/p>\n City Council legislation has been brewing since 2018, and backed by the guides’ association, would restore at least some safety, contends Casey.<\/p>\nFind out what's happening in New York Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.<\/h2>\n
Find out what's happening in New York Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.<\/h2>\n
A ‘Parasitic’ Relationship<\/h3>\n
‘Thrown Under The Bus’<\/h3>\n