For the second, make it third time this school year, wheels have fallen off a moving school bus, reports ABC Action News in Tampa Bay, Florida.
No students were on board the Hillsborough County Public Schools buses at the time of the latest two incidents that occurred with a day of each other. The reporter writes that Director of Transportation Jim Beekman was inspecting the first bus when the call came in of the second. The lug nuts were loose on these and 20 other new Hillsborough County propane school buses that had recently been purchased from Blue Bird and delivered by the local dealer, ABC Action News learned.
Beekman said the bus dealer is responsible for ensuring the lug nuts are tightened before the bus is delivered to the district, and that the vehicle manual states that the lug nuts then don’t need to be checked for another 12,000 miles after the bus is put into service. But now, he added, the school district is inspecting the lug nuts on all new school buses before they hit the road and staff is re-checking the wheels more often.
Related: Tighten Your Lug Nuts: Wheel Falls Off N.C. School Bus
Beekman also said he contacted the Florida Department of Education and asked officials to investigate all new school buses purchased around the same time.
A Blue Bird spokeswoman sent ABC Action News a statement that read, “We checked the installation tool and relevant calibration records for these buses and found them within acceptable parameters. While we could not find the root cause of the issue, we are satisfied that it is an isolated event.”
Still, check your lug nuts.
