2007 Blue Bird Xcel 102 problems

Filed May 4, 2009 · TX

Wichita falls independent school district, wichita falls, texas school bus, contracted out to durham transportation. School bus number 42002, route 70. 2007 bluebird school bus. We (teacher aides) were loading a child in a wheelchair on bus, when the wheelchair lift began to fold up while the wheelchair was still on it, I had to move the wheelchair onto to bus from the ground and almost got my arm caught in the folding lift, the wheelchair foot pegs where pushed back by the lift, the aide on the bus was able to move the wheelchair back before the student's feet were crushed. There was nobody at the controls when this happen, the lift started folding on its own. It seems that there is a recall on certain wheelchair lifts anti-stow interlock not adjusted properly on certain school buses. Ref: the federal safety agency action number eq08011 the recall list shows recalls for only 2006 bluebird buses, the problem seems to be on the 2007 buses also. Durham transportation claims this incident would not have happened if there was a qualified operator operating the lift controls, I doubt it considering the lift folded without anybody at the controls. The company also claims they have repaired the lift, but still will not deploy down without pressing the "deploy" and the "down" switches at the same time, this shows that the sensing switches are still not working properly. I am familar with this type of system, it is similar aircraft cargo ramps lift systems the only difference is the sizes. I operated and used to trouble shoot the ramp system for 16 years and then taught the theory, operations and troubleshooting of the system for 6 six years as an air force master instructor.