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NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007School Buses in Pennsylvania
Seldom Face Age Limit In many school districts in the region, it would be impossible for a runaway 1994 school bus to inflict the mayhem that occurred last week at Pennsbury High School. That's because all New Jersey districts and some in Pennsylvania don't allow buses that old to carry public school students. Investigators have not determined what caused the Pennsbury bus to suddenly accelerate onto a sidewalk packed with students Friday afternoon. And while there is no federal standard for determining how old is too old, some safety advocates believe there should be. "That's quite an issue from our vantage point," said Alan Ross, president of the National Coalition for School Bus Safety. "Some of these vehicles are being kept on the road far too long. Schools can save a lot of money by retrofitting them with new transmissions and engines, but that gives us great concern because of the lack of universal safety standards." Pennsbury Bus 42, which injured 17 students last week, is a 13-year-old Thomas Built MVP model vehicle with 205,000 miles on it. It was among five of its kind still in the fleet at Pennsbury, school officials have said. All have been removed from service for now. Thomas is a bus manufacturer in North Carolina. Yet those were not the oldest buses in the 128-vehicle Pennsbury fleet in Bucks County. "The oldest we have are from 1993; there are a few of them," district spokesman Elliott Alexander said. Whether the bus' age or mileage had any bearing on last week's accident remains to be seen. Bus 42, like every public school bus, was subject to twice-a-year state mechanical inspections and a summer safety inspection by state police, which includes examining specific school bus safety features like emergency exits. A handful of states place limits on the age of a public school bus. "You cannot have a bus in service that is more than 12 years old," said Richard Vespucci, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Education. The 12-and-under law has been on the books for three decades. "We usually run them no more than 10 years," said A.J. Holcomb, general manager of Holcomb Bus Co., which provides buses for 25 New Jersey school districts. "We also try to rotate them around on different routes so they don't get too many miles on them." New Jersey buses are subject to twice-a-year inspections. In a novel service, the state posts the results of each school bus' inspection on a Web site: www.njmvc.gov. In Pennsylvania, some districts also put age restrictions on their bus fleets, according to school officials who responded to questions e-mailed to area superintendents by The Inquirer. In Delaware County's William Penn School District, "no bus should be more than 10 years old, and the average age should be five," said Superintendent Dana Bedden. While the 10-year rule is firm, Bedden said, the five-year average age is more of a target. Chester County's Owen J. Roberts School District is even stricter. The bus company with which it has a contract is prohibited from using buses more than three years old, according to Superintendent Myra Forrest. School officials and safety experts agree that age and mileage do not make a well-maintained bus unsafe, but point out that upkeep and expense are more of an issue with older models. "You can't run a school bus forever," said Charles Gauthier, former executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services. "As it gets older, you have problems and maintenance issues. It is more cost-effective at some point to buy a newer vehicle." While federal guidelines do not exist, Gauthier's organization recommended in 2002 that full-size buses be used no more than 12 to 15 years. Smaller buses should be replaced sooner, the report said. That would place Pennsbury's Bus 42 within the group's recommended range. Spokesman Alexander said the district has been striving to replace at least 10 of its buses per year. On the day of the accident, Bus 42 was serving as a replacement for another bus that was undergoing repair. That is a common circumstance for aging buses in a school fleet, although some of Pennsbury's other 1994 buses were being used on a daily basis, Alexander said. On Friday afternoon, Bus 42 lurched forward, hopping a curb crowded with students, injuring 14. The driver, who said he was unable to halt the bus by braking or shifting gears, finally drove the bus into a wall, injuring three students on board. The most seriously injured student, Ashley Zauflik, remained in critical condition yesterday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. By Larry King
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