NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007

State Patrol Issues Warning About School Bus Brake System
February 17, 2007

The Minnesota State Patrol is ordering some buses it deems unsafe, off the road.

But the agency is not saying if the action is connected to a serious bus accident in Ham Lake last December.

"Conceivably we could be talking about an ongoing criminal investigation and that's not something I can talk about," said Lt. Mark Peterson of the State Patrol.

The alert went out Friday to every school district and bus company in the state. It ordered Chevrolet and GMC buses off the road, if their Bendix Hyrdo-Max Power Brakes have had aftermarket modifications - in particular modifications to the eyelet or clevis pedal rod.

"It was a modification that was made to the brakes that in our opinion shouldn't have been made," said Lt. Peterson.

The driver of the Ham Lake bus blamed brake failure after his bus slammed into two other vehicles in a crowded intersection. Two dozen children and adults were injured. The bus in the accident was a Chevrolet.

Lt. Peterson said investigators found brake modifications on buses owned by a single carrier. He would not name the carrier, nor say what part of the state it operated in.

The Anoka-Hennepin school board is still waiting for the results of the State Patrol's Ham Lake accident investigation. Reached at home Friday night, board chairman Michael Sullivan said he's had no indication the Ham Lake bus is the one that prompted the statewide alert.

Kottke's Bus Service owned the bus in the Ham Lake crash. No one answered the phone Friday night at the company's Andover office.

Lt. Peterson said the unnamed carrier that made the improper modification has corrected the problem in its own buses. He said the State Patrol isn't sure if other carriers have made similar brake modifications, but decided to error on the side of safety.

By Boyd Huppert, KARE 11 News

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