SEATTLE — A Washington lawmaker is exploring new bus safety laws after a Sound Transit bus crashed into a downtown Seattle building Saturday night, sending 11 people to the hospital.
"We're also considering what it would look like if we either required, or at least had seatbelts available, on public transit as well to make sure that we're all safe: adults and children," said state Rep. Gina Mosbrucker from the 14th District in Klickitat County.
Over the last decade, Mosbrucker focused her efforts on getting a bill passed that would mandate seatbelts on Washington's school buses. While unsuccessful thus far, Saturday's public transit crash now has her rethinking her scope: to include seatbelts being added to public transit buses.
"Maybe, possibly expanding the bill," she said.
This weekend's crash marked the fourth time a public transit bus went off the road and crashed in Seattle in the last eight months alone.
"They feel safer with a seatbelt, most people. And so, why not give them an option whenever they're in a moving vehicle," Mosbrucker said.
KING 5 spoke to some King County Metro passengers Sunday.
"I would be open to wearing a seatbelt but I would bet a lot of people that ride the bus wouldn't be," said Tyler Coughlin.
By Sunday afternoon, workers had cleared most of the wreckage from the crash site at 5th Avenue and Yesler Way.
The night prior, 11 people had been sent to the hospital with injuries.
One passenger named Sindi Meli told us, "My whole face was covered in blood that's not even mine. It was honestly very terrifying."
Police say the bus driver told officers his brakes failed just before the crash.
Another passenger, Filip Bujaroski, said, "I have some bad rib pain.”
One 54-year-old man who entered the hospital in critical condition is now considered satisfactory, but passengers say the memories endure.
"It was more traumatic," said Meli.
They are not alone in their trauma.
In November of 2023, a pedestrian was killed when a King County Metro bus crashed into a building in Belltown. Two months later, another Metro bus holding 25 passengers crashed into an indoor skate park near the Chinatown-International District. Three months after that, in April, a Community Transit double-decker bus crashed into a building in downtown Seattle, leaving one person with minor injuries.
"Crashes happen frequently enough for us to have a real pause for concern," said Anne Vankirk, a personal injury attorney for Dubin Law Group in Seattle.
Vankirk added, "We not only need to be monitoring all of the safety things that are already in -- mechanisms already in place on the vehicle. But we also need to be looking at what mechanisms would be helpful.”
Coughlin told KING 5 he feels seatbelts on buses would be helpful. Still, he worries they would become required to wear.
"First of all I doubt everybody would follow it, and then oh, the ticket, you know? Could you be ticketed? And could you not be ticketed on a bus?” Coughlin posed.
Mosbrucker said she agrees the focus of legislation should be giving people an option.
"I'll probably do a tour to talk to people in my district or even the state of Washington about, how do you feel about that?" said Mosbrucker.
Mosbrucker is not seeking re-election, and her term will wrap up in January 2025. Until that time comes, she is currently helping to draft roughly nine Washington bills for next session.
She said, "I'll hand it off carefully to a legislator I think who can pass it, and move forward, to make sure we keep people safe. But this is the stakeholder work period."
In 2009, Greyhound equipped its fleet of buses with seatbelts, according to Metro Magazine. A decade later, The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a final rule requiring lap and shoulder seat belts on new motorcoaches and other large buses.
That same year, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended seat belts be required on all new school buses, but Mosbrucker's attempt to pass a bill in the legislative session once again failed.
In the meantime, Sound Transit's investigation into what happened Saturday night is ongoing. KING 5's request to interview Sound Transit on Sunday was declined.