JACKSON, Calif. — Valerie Hancock thought her 11-year-old son was exaggerating last February when he called with a breathless report that a back axle and two tires had come spiraling off his yellow school bus right in front of their house.
"I said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' I figured they had a flat. Because school buses in America aren't supposed to lose their wheels, are they?"
But when Hancock reached her home in rural Amador County in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento, the beauty shop owner and mother of two gasped: The road was gashed where the heavy bus had partly collapsed, with a dozen students on board but unhurt, and the axle and tires lay scattered across the pavement.
She immediately picked up the phone and called the California Highway Patrol.
What on earth, she asked, was going on?
Plenty, according to an ongoing CHP investigation of the bus fleet in the 4,500-student Amador County School District.
This week, school board trustees indefinitely removed all 30 buses from the road after state officials reported safety violations that included gas and exhaust leaks, bad tires, faulty suspensions, steering and odometer problems, and faulty record keeping on repairs. And the local district attorney says he is investigating whether to file criminal charges against those involved in bus upkeep.
Parents across the county are shepherding their children to school, driving 40 miles or more one way over winding mountain roads. Each morning and afternoon, normally sedate country towns resemble drop-off lanes at a busy airport -- and patrolmen regulate traffic.
School district officials blame money problems for the repair delays and say they have fired a maintenance supervisor.
Slipshod Repairs
A CHP statewide safety official says Amador County's problems are extraordinary. Says Greg Bragg, manager of the agency's motor carrier safety program: "Each year, we inspect every single school bus in the state -- that means 28,000 buses and 800 bus repair terminals -- and usually find minimal violations. I've never seen anything like this county."
Many local parents say they're paying the price for the slipshod repairs.
"I don't trust those buses anymore," says Amy Petriello as she drops her children off at Pine Grove Elementary School. "I got written up at work this week because I got in late bringing the kids to school."
