Feb. 27--It had all the makings of a memorable celebration for Helen Sarver's 90th birthday.
Booked by her son, Robert Sarver, the 38-foot-long white luxury party bus had wrap-around leather seating, flat-screen televisions, fiber-optic lighting, a fully stocked bar and mirrored ceilings.
But when the limo bus arrived in
Mars
to transport two dozen friends and family members to Eddie Merlot's steakhouse, Downtown, the group discovered one of the bus's two air-conditioning units wasn't working as temperatures hovered near 90 degrees in August 2014. Passengers became flushed, overheated and nauseated. Two people allegedly vomited.
The bus operator disputes that description of events, but on Thursday, state utility regulators penalized
Erie
-based Barnes Professional Limousine Service LLC $500 for exposing the passengers to unsafe conditions.
Owner Matt Barnes, reached for comment on Thursday, said there was never any evidence of physical illness on the bus. "We maintain that we didn't have any liability or fault on the matter," he said.
The case was an unusual one before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, a regulatory board that oversees everything from regulated electric and natural gas utilities to telecommunications companies, from transportation carriers to water authorities.
Its agenda is typically populated with utility rate adjustments, license approvals, billing disputes and the occasional civil penalty -- most notably, a $50 million recommended fine for ride-share company Uber. That case is still pending.
But sometimes it gets pulled into party bus disputes. In 2009, the state commission approved Mr. Barnes' license to provide "group and party service," a designation that provides for rides transporting at least 16 people. The company also has a motor carrier license from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In recommending the fine, a PUC administrative law judge last summer cited the commission's responsibility to regulate safe transportation service.
"Two people suffered temporary personal illness as a result of respondent providing a limo bus for hire on a hot summer day without two properly-working air conditioning units," Judge Katrina L. Dunderdale wrote in an initial decision on June 25, 2015.
While the limo company was not required to issue a refund in Thursday's ruling, the fine stands. The full commission said it has authority to regulate safety issues, not the rates charged for services.
But it added, "Mr. Sarver may wish to pursue the refund issue in an appropriate forum."
In his filings with the commission, Mr. Barnes argued the claims against his company constituted hearsay. The commission disagreed, calling Mr. Sarver's complaint first-hand testimony.
The commission noted the conditions were corroborated within Mr. Barnes' own testimony that one of the air conditioners was not working and that, when a large number of passengers are in the vehicle, the temperature can "increase severely even when both air conditioners are working."
To hear Mr. Sarver tell it, the occasion meant to celebrate his mother was miserable both coming and going. He said attempts to reach Mr. Barnes were unsuccessful, and the bus driver was sweating and sympathetic. Though the windows in the limo bus could be opened in the event of an emergency, they could not be rolled down to provide ventilation.
"We needed transportation into
Pittsburgh
, so we figured maybe it'd get better," Mr. Sarver said. "It was a debacle from start to finish. ... Everybody lost their appetite for dinner."
After Mr. Barnes refused to refund the total cost of the trip of $1,138.44, Mr. Sarver filed his complaint Sept. 3, 2014.
The PUC administrative law judge noted the dispute then spilled over into other forums. Sometime after the initial complaint, the judge wrote, Mr. Barnes penned a negative one-star Google review of Mr. Sarver's landscape business.
Mr. Sarver said he was not unhappy with Thursday's ruling despite the PUC withholding a refund because he only wanted the limo company to be held responsible.
"If [Mr. Barnes] would've been courteous and called me back ... anything like that would've put this thing to bed," he said.
Daniel Moore: dmoore@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2743 and Twitter @PGdanielmoore.
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