TEXT OF LETTER TO THE U.S. Department of Transportation:
27 August 2014
DELIVERED VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
Mr. Ric Willard, Safety Defects Engineer
Office of Defects Investigation
NHTSA/U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
Re: Follow-up to ODI#01621988
Dear Mr. Willard,
On behalf of the Salt Lake City residents that elected me to represent them on the Board of Education, I am filing this complaint/request with your office.
This is a follow up to a complaint I submitted to your office that was assigned ODI #01621988.
It appears that one of the parents with a student on the bus also filed a complaint that was assigned
ODI # 10621988.
On June 3, 2014, Salt Lake City School District Bus # 199 (VIN 1BABNBXA21F098333) was taking students home from school when the heater hose inside the passenger compartment ruptured and spewed pressurized, scalding antifreeze on the students in the school bus, several of them were severely burned to the point of requiring hospitalization.
The Superintendent and Transportation Director of our school district initially declared that this was an “isolated incident” and no further action other than repairing bus #199 was required. I sent both of them information demonstrating that this was happening across the country and was not an isolated incident. Following a June 24, 2014, meeting with the Transportation Director and the parents, I sent the Superintendent and the Transportation Director an email, challenging their contention of this being an “isolated incident”. In that email (see attached), I included copies of the recall notice issued by your office, styled NHTSA Campaign Number:14V-313.
Through a series of email exchanges, the school district bureaucracy made the point that the bus in question was not part of the recall notice. They also cited a UHP report that this was not their fault.
In some frustration, I filed a complaint with the Utah Department of Transportation, Motor Carriers Division (see attached) and with the Utah State Office of Education (see attached).
Due to the fact that the Superintendent was providing me with misleading and conflicting information over the past three months, I submitted a Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) request.
The school district responded to my request with 103 pages of documentation that I received today. The response was incomplete because I am aware of other information that they have not included. I am in the process of sending them a request for the omitted information.
I want to draw your attention to page 67 of the district’s GRAMA response. This is an email exchange (see attached) between Mr. Martinez, Transportation Service Manager and Mr. Tucker, Transportation Director. You will note that Mr. Martinez states that he has identified 28 buses in the school district’s fleet with the same type of heater system as Bus #199. He also states the following:
“The year make and model affected are, 1992-2005 Blue Bird All American and some TC2000 models. While researching this problem it was found that one of the factory guards has a 2” hole in it. We also found where the factory guards that mount to the sidewall of bus do not always fit tight”.
Mr. Martinez goes on to explain the modifications and repairs that he has caused to be done in order to mitigate the identified defects.
As you are aware, the original safety recall (14V-313) issued by your office, referenced Blue Bird/All American buses/2008-2013. I recognize that the recall notice cited a thermostat problem that caused the hose to rupture. The same safety recall also acknowledged that the shielding over the heater hose in the passenger compartment was deficient. As cited in my complaint to the Utah State Office of Education, the National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures requires: Heater lines on the interior of the bus shall be shielded to prevent scalding of the driver and passengers.
Based on the incident in Salt Lake City and the description provided by Mr. Martinez, the required shielding is clearly defected. I would request that your office inspect 1992-2005, Blue Bird buses to determine if the shielding is as inadequate as we have discovered here in Salt Lake City. If this is a widespread national problem, I would request that your office issue an immediate safety recall notice for the 1992-2005 Blue Bird School Buses.
Shalom,
J. Michael Clára
Board Member, District 2
cc: Mr. Muller Martin, Utah State Office of Education
Lt. Willmore, Utah Highway Patrol