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New York cracking down on fraudulent bus drivers

Posted at 11:26 PM, Mar 06, 2012
and last updated 2012-03-06 23:26:31-05

New York officials continue to crack down on tour bus safety in the wake of a recent fraud investigation.

Federal authorities arrested two people for allegedly helping commercial driver’s license applicants cheat on their written exam.

The company, N&Y Professional Service lines is now at the heart of a fraud investigation. It’s also tied to a fatal bus crash that happened last year in Caroline County.

Tameka Browning still remembers hearing about that crash that took the lives of four passengers and injured dozens more.

The driver Ken Yiu Cheung reportedly fell asleep and the Sky Express bus flipped.

"And I've been scared to get on a bus ever since" said Browning.

Now, these allegations that Cheung may have cheated on his driving test have her floored.

Federal court documents filed in New York line Cheung to Brooklyn based driving school, N&Y Professional Service Line.  That company has since had its license suspended and is at the heart of a fraud investigation.

DMV officials in New York say they have identified 174 N&Y clients.

They were all sent letters from DMV informing them that they must now retake their tests for the CDL.

They must do so by Friday.

If they fail to do so, their CDLs will be suspended. Browning says she’s concerned because she had friends who rely on discount bus services and she wonders if there are other drivers who may have cheated to get a CDL and ended up driving buses here in Virginia.

She’s glad about the New York crackdown and hopes it’ll extend to other states.  "I think all of them should retake the test if they went through that company.”

“If you are cheating on a test, how do we know that you know the rules and regulations of the road to actually have your CDL?,” said Browning.

We contacted DMV officials here in Virginia to see if they know of any Virginia CDL holders who may have obtained their CDL in New York after attending that particular driving school.

We found out if a person with an out-of-state CDL swaps it for one here in Virginia, our DMV would not have a record of the out-of -state driving school the applicant attended.