You know what’s worse than getting fined for having actual living people riding in the luggage hold of your bus? Getting in trouble a second time for having actual, living people in the luggage hold of your bus, twice.
A Michigan bus company has been fined for the second time because they actually sold tickets for riders to allow them to experience their trip from the luggage compartment of the vehicle. Worryingly, Haines Tours had already been advised that the practice was unsafe after getting busted last summer, and no one knows why some passengers relented and allowed themselves to be placed in that area of the bus.
In a statement , authorities addressed the May 27th incident- after which Haines Tours was ordered to stop like, bussing people places or something:
“People’s lives were needlessly placed at risk,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a statement. “Safety is everyone’s responsibility and it begins with practicing common sense. That means not putting human beings in cargo holds.”
In addition to people, the luggage hold was found to contain mattresses, pillows and actual luggage.
Update: Haines claims that the passengers in the cargo hold were family and fellow drivers who used the area to stay well rested. Regardless of his claim it is illegal to allow for any people to ride in the cargo hold of a bus in the United States, something Haines was made aware of in 2010 when he received his first citation from the U.S. Department of Transportation and was warned to avoid the practice on all future rides.
