Calls for Charges To be Laid Under Motor Vehicle Act and Superintendent to be Reprimanded
Sickening, is all we can say at revelations that Bill Estabrooks, the owner of Prestige Bus Service of Sackville, New Brunswick is so ignorant about his responsibilities under the Motor Vehicle Act that he ADMITS in an interview with Bill Powers of the Halifax Chronicle Herald that he knew the tires on two charter buses with 60 New Brunswick school children on board had to be replaced but decided to go ahead with the 300 km trip to Halifax and back anyways. (Click here to read article "Tire checks stop school buses in their tracks" on the front page of the Halifax Herald today).
Publicity about the deficient tires and interrupted school trip has been devastating for the chartered bus operation, said Donald Estabrooks, whose family owns the business. He said officials with New Brunswick School District 2 have already cancelled future contracts.
Estabrooks said some people are overreacting to the situation and comparing it to the Jan. 12, 2008, highway tragedy that killed seven students and a teacher from Bathurst High School. The crash of the van they were in was partly blamed on worn tires.
He said he has friends with children and a nephew at the school and would not allow an unsafe bus on the road.
"There was never, at any time, a safety risk," he said. "We are a small company that is completely dedicated to safety."
Estabrooks was driving one of the buses. He said the two worn tires on the tag axles of each bus were identified prior to departure and a decision was made to replace them the following day.
And you know Estabrooks is worried when his only defense is to accuse his critics of "over-reacting" when they compare his IRRESPONSIBLE and ILLEGAL actions to the Bathurst tragedy which killed our sons.
As much as Mr. Estabrooks would like people to believe the bald tires on his chartered bus and the Boys in Red Tragedy ARE NOT related, they ARE connected by the cavalier attitude of people like him who put 60 children on charter buses with bald tires in winter and by a government that backs them up by refusing to do anything about it.
Lay Charges Under the Motor Vehicle Act
All we can say is he better get charged with a violation of the Motor Vehicle Act, like volunteer bus driver, Brice Noel, was in 2009 when the 21 passenger Multi Function Activity Bus he was driving had a wheel fly off the front end during a trip to Hartland, New Brunswick with a busload of basketball players! If Mr. Estabrooks isn't charged, we'll be following up with the NB Minister of Public Safety to find out why.
Reprimand Superintendent As Called for in Coroners Inquest
We're also calling upon the Minister of Education, Jody Carr, to reprimand District 2 Superintendent Karen Branscombe, for her failure to protect our children by allowing 60 students to be transported to an extra-curricular activity on a chartered bus with bald tires in winter. It is one of the recommendations from the Coroners Inquest that was actually implemented:
A process should be put in place so that persons employed by the Department of Education who fail to fulfil their duties as outlined in the guidelines, policies and regulations of the department are reprimanded. The reprimand should be recognized and serve as a reminder to other staff that they must do their job or be confronted with a reprimand or dismissal, if need be - Recommendation from the Bathurst Coroners Inquest, May 2009
Premier David Alward has a chance to change the direction of this story. We implore him to follow the May 2009 Coroners Jury recommendations that students be transported to extra curricular activities in yellow school buses or Multi Fuction Activity
Buses by qualified, Class 2 licensed yellow school bus drivers.
THERE IS NO OTHER SAFE WAY TO TRANSPORT STUDENTS TO EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES. We repeat: Children are NOT SAFE when they are on board vehicles with bald tires. There is no negotiation in this matter.
Tire checks stop school buses in their tracks
By BILL POWER Staff Reporter
Sun, Nov 28 - 4:53 AM
Sixty New Brunswick school children had a trip to Halifax interrupted for more than a few hours Wednesday because their two privately chartered buses entered Nova Scotia with substandard tires.
Inspectors with this province’s motor carrier division stationed at the weigh station just outside Amherst "observed the unfamiliar vehicles crossing the border into Nova Scotia," Paul Allen, a division spokesman, said Saturday.
They signalled ahead and later in the day, the buses, owned by Prestige Bus Service of Sackville, N.B., were pulled over by other inspectors. One was stopped near the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, the other was ordered into the Irving Big Stop in Enfield.
Both were subjected to roadside, walk-around inspections and "some tires on both vehicles were found to be deficient," Allen said.
Tread depth on a number of tires was found to be below the required 3.17 millimetres, he said. (The minimum tread depth for a regular passenger vehicle is 1.5 millimetres.)
Inspectors ordered immediate replacement of the defective tires, resulting in a lengthy delay for the students from Marshview Middle School in Sackville, N.B.
Allen said it is unlikely the motor carrier division, which operators under the authority of the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, will be apologizing for interrupting the trip.
"A pre-departure inspection could easily have determined some tires had insufficient tread depth," Allen said, noting that drivers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are required to conduct an inspection of their motor coach prior to each trip.
"Tire tread depth is checked easily with an appropriate gauge," he said.
The pre-trip inspection is in addition to the twice-yearly inspections that authorities in both provinces require every motorcoach to undergo.
Publicity about the deficient tires and interrupted school trip has been devastating for the chartered bus operation, said Donald Estabrooks, whose family owns the business. He said officials with New Brunswick School District 2 have already cancelled future contracts.
Estabrooks said some people are overreacting to the situation and comparing it to the Jan. 12, 2008, highway tragedy that killed seven students and a teacher from Bathurst High School. The crash of the van they were in was partly blamed on worn tires.
He said he has friends with children and a nephew at the school and would not allow an unsafe bus on the road.
"There was never, at any time, a safety risk," he said. "We are a small company that is completely dedicated to safety."
Estabrooks was driving one of the buses. He said the two worn tires on the tag axles of each bus were identified prior to departure and a decision was made to replace them the following day.
Tires on tag axles "provide additional support when there are exceptionally heavy loads," Estabrooks explained.
When inspectors ordered the tires on the tag axles replaced, "we immediately complied," he said.
Estabrooks said there was some confusion with cellular calls from students alerting parents that the return trip was delayed because tires had to be replaced.
"Some of the parents did not understand which tires were involved. We’re trying to get the word out about what actually happened and how these tires function on a bus," he said.
( bpower@herald.ca)
