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Passenger · Prohibited Practices and Brake-Door Interlocks

A bus with passengers aboard breaks down. Under federal regulation, may it be towed or pushed?

1.No, not with passengers aboard, unless leaving them raises the hazard, then only to the nearest safe pointCorrect answer
2.Yes, so long as the tow is performed by a commercial towing operator who is properly licensed for that type of work
3.Yes, so long as the bus is towed rather than pushed, and the towing speed stays under 25 miles per hour the entire time
4.No, under no circumstances whatsoever, so all passengers must always be removed from the bus first before any towing begins

Explanation

A disabled bus may not be towed or pushed with passengers aboard, with one narrow exception: where observing that prohibition would itself increase the hazard to the passengers, the bus may be moved, and then only as far as the nearest point where their safety is assured. 49 CFR 392.63 states both the prohibition and that exception, and it runs the other way too, barring a bus with passengers aboard from being used to tow or push a disabled motor vehicle. The exception exists because the alternative is sometimes worse, as when a breakdown leaves a full bus sitting in a live traffic lane, and the limit on how far the bus may be moved is what keeps the exception from swallowing the rule. The wrong options either add conditions the regulation does not use, a professional towing operator or a speed limit, or harden the rule into an absolute, which would strand passengers in exactly the situation the exception was written for.

Source: 49 CFR 392.63

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