Council hears accounts of StarTran crash and driver safety concerns after storm; calls for clearer authority to suspend service

Several public-comment speakers at the Lincoln City Council’s April 28 meeting urged city leaders to address StarTran safety procedures after a March 19 windstorm during which drivers were ordered to operate in hazardous conditions.

Rhetoric in the public comments focused on the March 19 event, when council speakers said wind gusts and low visibility left interstate and arterial routes hazardous. According to testimony, state patrol closed sections of the interstate early that morning and large commercial vehicles later blocked lanes; speakers said StarTran supervisors nonetheless directed buses onto roads that other authorities had closed.

Driver and family testimony: Hunter Dovanbarger told the council that drivers were instructed to continue service despite high winds and low visibility; he said a bus was involved in a crash and that the circumstances amounted to an unsafe order. A second speaker identified as Ronette (surname on record) described her husband’s collision: she said his bus was blown across lanes, struck the median, was sideswiped by a semi and then rear-ended by a second semi while he waited for supervisory assistance. She said state patrol responded but supervisors arrived late. The speaker said the driver used paid leave and workman’s compensation processes are ongoing.

Union and policy references: Speakers cited the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) contract and existing language directing employees to act in the city’s best interest and to operate vehicles safely; they argued that the unilateral authority to suspend service in hazardous conditions should rest with front-line operations managers (named in the testimony as CJ and Carla) rather than be routed through higher-level administrators with less direct operational visibility.

City response and next steps: The speakers asked the council to consider changes to management authority to allow operational suspension of fixed routes during extreme weather and to review StarTran’s decision-making protocols. Councilors did not take formal action at the meeting but the testimony places driver safety and operational-suspension authority on the record for any future staff response or review.

Provenance: Public comments and firsthand accounts appear in the open-comment segment beginning in the 7393–7550 second range of the transcript (Hunter Dovanbarger, lines at 7393–7402; Ronette’s testimony beginning at 7448–7550).