Fixed? Iowa's school bus inspection problems persist
The number of Iowa school buses flagged repeatedly by state inspectors as unsafe to transport children has nearly doubled in the 21/2 years since a Des Moines Register investigation called attention to what safety regulators described as a systemic statewide problem.
The latest repeated citations to Iowa school buses include unsafe tires, inoperable warning signals or strobe lights, missing or faulty chassis fasteners, broken seat frames and dysfunctional wheel bearings.
In the most dangerous cases, school officials were told that it would be illegal to transport children until the problems were fixed. With less serious mechanical or safety issues, districts were given a 30-day window to rectify the problems.
Most districts receiving the nearly 22,000 bus inspection citations issued since June 2012 notified the state that the repairs were made before the buses were returned to service.
But some people question if all the fixes really happened: At least 193 buses in 96 districts were cited for the same issue in the vehicle's next inspection.
In fact, the state's education department has sent letters to three districts so far this year accusing them of falsifying at least 11 repair records. Some of the records dealt with serious safety concerns, including a hole in an exhaust pipe on a Columbus Community bus in Columbus Junction; an inoperable rear red warning light in Creston; and an emergency door incapable of being opened from the outside on a Williamsburg bus.
"This, in pure and simple terms, amounts to fraud," Jeff Berger, the department's deputy director, wrote in a letter to Columbus Community School Superintendent Marlene Johnson on May 9. The same letter also noted that the district had rotated — instead of replaced — an unsafe tire on a school vehicle that was carrying children that morning.
It's often unclear if problem was fixed
With the 193 buses experiencing repeated issues, it's possible that some of the problems could have been fixed and then recurred before the subsequent inspection.
And it's also likely that some of the citations were for slightly different issues. Torn bus seats, for example, is a generic description that doesn't identify which seat had an issue.
But dozens of more precise repeat violations, such as for an inoperable left/rear outside stoplight, signal that school buses are returning to Iowa roads without required fixes, state officials and school bus safety experts such as Bruce Little told the Register.
"There's a crash out there waiting to happen, and the results of that is that kids will be seriously injured and possibly killed," said Little, of Aurora, Colo., a former board member of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services. "Do we need to wait until the body count is at a certain level before taking action?"
The Register's initial investigation 21/2 years ago focused on five years of data ending in June 2012, a review that found at least 99 school buses in 67 districts had consecutive inspections that cited the same problem.
No school officials who spoke with the Register in 2012 acknowledged they had intentionally falsified state records to show a problem had been fixed. The same was true this year. Each official described it as happenstance that the same problem on the same bus reappeared in consecutive six-month inspections. They also said that state records are often not precise enough to indicate the same exact problem, or that someone mistakenly misreported the issue as resolved.
The Wayne Community School District in Corydon, for example, was cited for more than three-dozen repeated issues involving its buses over the past 30 months. The Register shared the list with Superintendent Dave Daughton, who provided a six-page letter explaining each violation.
Daughton noted several examples where the state's citations were not specific and where the district believes the problem detected in a subsequent inspection differed from the initial citation. For example, citations involving three consecutive tire sidewall violations on a school van over an 18-month period, the latest on Nov. 18, could have been for different tires, he said.
The same could be true for a bus with a "bottom back broken" citation in three consecutive reports, also ending with the latest inspection on Nov. 18, he said. The bus has 22 seats, and there was no indication that the same seat was broken, he said.
"Your implication, as I perceived it, was that we and other districts were not fixing the issues that were named in the reports," Daughton wrote in a Dec. 18 letter responding to the district's inspections records. "… As I told you on the phone, I cannot speak for other districts, only for our own. When we are presented with the inspection report, we comply with the directives and correct the issues in a timely manner."
Legislation urged, but no action yet
The Department of Education's Berger said this month that school officials almost always promptly and properly fix vehicle deficiencies. Of the thousands of individual reports or citations issued since June 2012, fewer than 2 percent involved what appeared to be repeated violations, according to the Register's review of state records.
But there are documented exceptions, some that resulted in criminal prosecution.
In March, Douglas Anthony Wessling, a former transportation director for the Galva-Holstein district, pleaded guilty in Ida County to tampering with records involving a broken bus window that restricted vision and wasn't fixed. He paid a $1,000 fine and received two years of probation.
And in November 2012, former Colfax-Mingo transportation director Dennis Gibson was arrested on five counts of felonious misconduct in office for similar issues. Four of the counts were ultimately dropped. Gibson was convicted on the remaining charge and paid a $750 fine and received two years of probation.
The latest legal tangle occurred in Woodward-Granger this fall after transportation director Kevin Thiele falsely certified that body work on a bus had been completed. Superintendent Brad Anderson said Thiele thought he had filed for an extension to complete the work while the district awaited delivery of parts. Instead, he had erroneously certified the work was completed, Anderson said.
The Iowa State Patrol — which frequently assists in inspections — forwarded the Woodward-Granger case to the Dallas County Attorney's office. Charges were not filed because there was no evidence of criminal intent, said Dallas County Attorney Wayne Reisetter. Thiele is still on the job.
"We would never intentionally put kids in harm's way," Anderson said.
No students died or were injured because of school bus maintenance issues during the 7½-years of data reviewed by the Register, according to state education officials.
But lawmakers from both parties have said the absence of injury does not justify lack of attention to inspections designed to protect children. Despite public pressure, however, they have yet to make changes the state's education department has proposed to improve safety, including requiring that all school vehicles be inspected.
Currently, no inspections are required for school vehicles that carry nine or fewer students, which means 1,500 to 1,800 activity vehicles receive no state inspections or inconsistent inspections.
Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls and chairman of the Senate State Government Committee, said the latest revelations will add weight to calls for further legislative review and possible action during the upcoming 2015 session.
"I'm not sure why anybody would be OK with this," Danielson said of the Register's latest findings. "Kids' safety should be our top priority and this clearly indicates that problems persist."
SCHOOLS RESPOND, EXPLAIN CITATIONS
The Register shared its findings with three districts that have among the most repeated citations since Jan. 1, 2011.
Here are their responses:
DISTRICT: Albia
Number of bus inspections involved in repeated findings: 27
Example of most serious repeated violation: Backup lights inoperable in two consecutive inspections on two separate occasions (four separate inspections).
Response: Superintendent Kevin Crall says four of the findings were notations and not specific citations or requirements for the district to make improvements. One was for a half-inch tear on two separate occasions to a windshield wiper blade that had been repaired in between visits, he said. Some of the citations were for issues that weren't necessarily related to the same problem even though they appeared that way because of the state's citation classification system, he said. Crall said the district fixes everything that's cited but noted that its buses travel more than 171,000 miles a year, mostly on gravel, meaning that light bulbs can be jarred and malfunction again between inspections. The district is updating its fleet, and the district no longer owns some of the buses that were previously cited. The school also now asks drivers to fill out a form every time they discover a deficiency so it may be fixed immediately.
Quote: "Student safety is our No. 1 priority, and I hope the article reflects our dedication to providing safe transportation for our students," Crall said.
DISTRICT: Colfax-Mingo
Number of bus inspections involved in repeated findings: 32
Example of most serious repeated violation: Stop arm lights not flashing in two consecutive inspections.
Response: This is a district where a bus supervisor was convicted of a criminal charge in connection with falsified bus repairs. The district has since hired a private company to conduct its bus service and, to date, has had very few problems, said Superintendent Marty Lucas. There have been no citations against the school since March 2012.
Quote: "They (the private company) do more training and more inspection-type work on a daily basis. We're just very happy with the service," said Lucas, who also noted that the system costs the district about the same amount of money.
DISTRICT: Wayne Community
Number of bus inspections involved in repeated findings: 55
Example of most serious repeated violation: Sidewall tire issues cited in three consecutive inspections.
Response: Superintendent Dave Daughton pointed out that four of the findings were notations and not specific citations requiring the district to make improvements. One of the repeated problems involves a manufacturer's defect with windows on a newer bus that the school hasn't been able to correct, he said. One vehicle that had three consecutive sidewall tire citations was a van and technically didn't require a bus inspection, he said, plus the problems weren't believed to involve the same tire. He also said some of the issues weren't necessarily related to the same problem even though they appeared that way because of the state's citation classification system.
Quote: "In our school district, our bus mechanic fixes those issues. We may have the same issue on the next inspection, but it's not that we are not fixing them," Daughton said.