WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Bus Malfunction Happens Twice in Same Day
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A hose like this ruptured on the two buses, spraying hot antifreeze at the children and bus driver.
First Student is now looking at several of their buses very carefully after a malfunction sent four students to the hospital. See A Scary Bus Ride for Some Southwest Middle School Students.
On Friday, four Southwest Middle School students went to the hospital after the engine cooling system on the bus erupted, spraying hot antifreeze at the children.
The same thing happened on another bus on the same day. Now, First Student is taking some serious measures to prevent any more mechanical malfunctions.
For the last three days, First Student mechanics like Bill Cawthon have been checking the cooling systems in all of their 1998 and 1999 Bluebird buses after a freak accident happened not once, but twice last Friday.
"Both buses had same hoses, same failure and same location," said Cawthon. "The hose closest to the wall ruptured which allowed coolant and steam to escape the access cover and into the compartment."
The same type of rupture sprayed and startled a driver in one bus and sent four students to the hospital for minor burns and blisters on the second bus.
First Student operations manager Randy Samples says he's never heard of anything like this before and the cooling system isn't normally something that needs to be inspected.
He says First Student is in the process of contacting Bluebird, the maker of the buses, but in the meantime he says he doesn't want to take any more chances. First Student has turned off all the heating valves on all their 1998 and 1999 year Bluebird buses, but that's not all they're doing.
The company is taking it one step further by replacing the hoses that run from the front to the back of the bus, just to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. "Regardless if it needs it or not, even if there is no evidence of it breaking in the future, we are not going to take that chance and just replace them all," said Cawthon.
Anything to limit the chances of a scary situation happening a third time.
First Student nationwide is checking all their 1998 and 1999 Bluebird year model buses.
Reported by: Brooke Kelley, bkelley@wtoc.com
