NTSB Won't Investigate Tennessee Bus Crash Thanks to Shutdown

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) won’t send investigators to look into a Tennessee bus crash that killed eight people Wednesday because of the government shutdown.

"In this particular case, I think it’s highly likely that we would have responded to it, but again, with our investigators furloughed, it’s impossible to do that," Sharon Bryson, deputy director of communications for the NTSB, told NBC News.

"All of our highway investigators are furloughed."

The deaths came as a bus holding members of a Statesville, N.C. church overturned. The bus passengers were returning from a preaching and gospel music conference in Tennessee, according to the Front Baptist Church, NBC reports.

NTSB investigators would normally spend a week or two in the field investigating such a crash, Bryson said.

Meanwhile, the NTSB is still investigating a commuter train crash in Chicago earlier this week that injured a few dozen people, according to The Hill.

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