by Eve Schlegel ‘20

Daimler Trucks North America, a bus manufacturing company, is calling for a recall of 53,000 school buses nationwide after it was found the seat backs do not have enough padding to properly protect passengers in an accident. About 800 of the 1,300 buses in MCPS are impacted by this callback. The manufacturer said it will start offering a free fix to the buses in early December.

“From what we understand, the risk is very small,” stated MCPS spokeswoman Gboyinde Onijala, in a WTOP article. “But with anything pertaining to student safety, we want to respond quickly, and that is what we’re doing.” Onijala noted that the flagged buses will remain in cycle until safety upgrades can be fully implemented. MCPS plans to have all fixes complete before the end of the school year in June.

MCPS has been purchasing new buses that have a safer feature: seat belts. Some 50 buses with seat belts have already been bought. “We’re going to be working closely with the manufacturer to address the needed repairs [such as] the lack of sufficient padding around the seats’ metal frame,” Onijala stated. “Our buses have a life cycle of about 12 years, so as we start replacing buses and buying new buses as they come to the end of their life cycle, our goal is to purchase buses that have seat belts installed.”