Inspection Yields Safety Violations on School Buses : Simi Valley: Nine of the district’s 40 vehicles were deemed not serviceable after a CHP check found 144 offenses.

During a routine check of the Simi Valley school district’s bus fleet, inspectors have uncovered 144 safety violations ranging from leaking steering systems to worn tires.

The violations were so severe that nine of the district’s 40 buses were forced from service last week following an inspection by the California Highway Patrol. Three of the buses have been repaired and returned to the road.

Simi Valley school officials said Thursday that they were trying to determine how the violations escaped earlier detection.

“I haven’t heard an answer I’m satisfied with on this, but we’re still investigating,” said Mary Beth Wolford, superintendent of the Simi Valley Unified School District.

The buses were grounded even before the inspector completed his report, which is due in about two weeks, said David Woods, motor carrier unit supervisor for the CHP’s coastal division.

“We felt the safety of passengers was being compromised due to the nature and extent of the problems we found,” Woods said.

The six buses still out of commission are among the oldest in the fleet, dating back to the late 1960s, Assistant Supt. Ralph Wilson said. The older buses have traveled at least 300,000 miles, Wilson said.

However, he added, “it was unusual to have quite as many violations as we had this time.”

In response, school officials said they have scheduled training sessions this month for transportation department employees, particularly mechanics and drivers responsible for regular bus inspections and maintenance.

“We want to make sure our mechanics are being very careful and that we’re doing everything possible to maintain and repair our buses,” Wolford said.

In addition, district officials must decide how much it would cost to fix the old buses and whether that money would be better spent replacing them with new or used vehicles, Wolford said.

“If the buses need an extensive amount of repairs, are we willing to spend that money?” Wolford said. “We have to look at the total picture. We have a lot of budget constraints.”

Inspectors have found a variety of safety violations, including loose bolts securing driver and passenger seats, steering fluid leaks, jammed or cracked windows, worn tires, rusted seats and rust-weakened structural supports, Woods said.

Hard to detect and expensive to repair, rusted supports were among the most serious problems found, Woods said. Structural posts, separating the roof from the body, are intended to keep the metal from buckling under stress, he said.

“If a truck drove into the side of the bus and you’ve got weak structural post support for the walls and the roof . . . it could result in a significant increase in injuries,” Woods said.

To fix the structural posts, the “skin” of the bus must be peeled back so that the frame can be re-welded, school officials said. Preliminary estimates show that job alone could cost $11,000 for one bus, Transportation Director Frank Smith said.

School buses must be inspected annually by the CHP, said Woods, whose division conducts inspections of school bus fleets and commercial trucking operations from Ventura County to Santa Cruz.

The last two inspections of Simi Valley buses turned up a more typical number of infractions not serious enough to warrant removal from the road, Woods said.

In April, 42 violations were noted in 23 buses, he said. In March, 1992, 25 buses were found to have 43 violations, he said.

The CHP must reinspect the out-of-service buses before they can return to the road, Woods said. In addition, the office plans to conduct a spot inspection before the next annual review date to ensure compliance, he said.

Although officials are still investigating the matter, Wolford said part of the problem appears to be that the older buses’ manufacturer, Crown Coach Corp., is out of business. As a result, replacement parts are hard to find, she said.

Replacing the six buses with new ones would be an expensive proposition, with each vehicle ranging from $85,000 to $140,000 in price, Wolford said.

The state provides no funding for bus purchases, she said.

However, as many districts phase out transportation programs because of budget cutbacks, used buses become available, Wolford said.

Other districts, such as the Conejo Valley Unified School District, have begun charging parents for bus service.

Wolford said she would recommend a course of action once all of the costs are known. Fewer than 10% of the district’s 18,000 students ride buses to and from school, she said.