School Bus Problems

Octavia Mitchell/Count on 2 News
Published: August 22, 2008

For the second time during the first week of school, a school bus had mechanical problems which lead to either smoke or both smoke and fire.

Friday morning, a bus was heading to Pinckney Elementary School and Laurel Hill Primary when smoke poured from the rear engine.  It happened in the Rivertown community.  Four students were on board.  No one was injured.  Officials say the smoke was caused by a problem with the engine.

Earlier this week, a bus erupted into flames in Berkeley county with students on board.  That fire was caused by a turbo malfunction.  Both busses are 1995 transit busses owned by the State Department of Education.

News 2 visited their Charleston maintenance shop to see what takes place during an eight weeks inspection.  Shop manager Andrew  Williams says, "We look for everything.  We start from the front to the rear, any thing loose, leaks.  We have checks on top of checks.  Even though there are federal standards, we have state standards as well, and they sometimes supercede the federal standards in a lot of areas.  

Parent Yvonne Galerza says she's concerned.  She says, "Try and keep our children safe.  You really have to pray for your children, and pray they    listen to the bus drivers who you hope are trained to deal with those situations."

State Department of Education transportation director Donald Tudor says the state has never had an injury or death related to a fire on school bus.  Tudor says, "South Carolina has an above average safety record compared to the rest of the country. I would encourage parents when an event like this occurs, recognize the children were safe, and the maintenance program and busses that we are using are safe."   Tudor says the school busses are the safest mode of transportation to school for students.  He says there is no way to detect the problems both of these busses had during an inspection.