Citing safety concerns, federal authorities from the U.S. Department of Transportation have ordered the Fung Wah bus company to shut down its operations and turn over its entire fleet of buses for inspection, CBS Boston reports.
Officials from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration provided a statement to CBS on Tuesday saying the Chinatown bus company was being ordered to "immediately cease passenger service" and provide its 28 coaches for safety checks.
Fung Wah had already taken most of its buses off the road when the order from the federal agency came, The Boston Globe reports, because inspections by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities had found potentially dangerous structural damages in the buses. Fung Wah voluntarily complied with the request by the agency to take 21 of its buses out of service, The Globe noted, and the state agency then referred the issue to federal authorities.
CBS Boston, which conducted in investigation into damaged Fung Wah buses, reported on Monday that state officials had asked the feds to "suspend or revoke" the company's license.
Fung Wah, also colloquially called the "Chinatown Bus," is known for providing cheap, frequent service to cities along the East Coast, like Boston, Philadelphia and New York. The company has faced serious issues in the past, from hitting pedestrians to buses flipping over and catching fire.
In May, Reuters reported that over two-dozen bus companies -- most of them serving Chinatown routes -- were ordered to close after 17 people were killed in crashes involving their buses in New York and New Jersey in just one year.
In New York, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) has been fighting to get a law passed that would require curbside bus companies like Fung Wah to post safety letter grades in their windows, but the bill has not yet become law.