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Following reports from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety that one out of every eight school buses operated by First Student fails to meet state safety standards, members of the Minnesota delegation have raised concerns with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
First Student is Minnesota’s largest school bus provider. At a failure rate of 12 percent, its operations also exceed the statewide average of 9 percent. As a result, First Student was required to pull 141 buses from its fleet of 1,160. On top of the buses that failed inspection, the company was given 14 days to make repairs on an additional 143 buses.
In response, the Minnesota delegation, including U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, as well as U.S. Reps. Angie Craig, Dean Phillips, Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, and Collin Peterson, sent a joint letter to NHTSA Acting Administrator James Owens.
“NHTSA plays a critical role in ensuring the safety of our students, including the setting of minimum safety standards for school buses and issuing recalls for school buses that do not meet federal requirements,” the delegation wrote. “While states regulate how school buses are used, NHTSA also plays an integral part in issuing recommendations for state student transportation safety programs.”
The legislators want to know what the NHTSA can do to improve oversight of maintenance and safety of such school buses. In this case with First Student, the issues were glaring: unsafe brakes, flat tires, steering issues, and faulty emergency door buzzers — and that was with advance notice of inspections given.
The Minnesota delegation more specifically wants to know if there is national data on student school bus-related injuries due to safety defects, the number of recalls issued for school buses each year, efforts taken by the NHTSA to coordinate with school bus providers to guarantee access to safety defect and recall information, and what resources the NHTSA would need to improve its oversight operations.