2010 Blue Bird All American, Blue Bird Conventional and others recall: equipment adaptive/mobility

Equipment adaptive/mobility

What is wrong

Blue bird has notified the federal safety agency about a defect in certain model year 2010 all american, conventional, and micro bird school buses manufactured from april 24 through november 14, 2009 equipped with certain ricon s series and k series l-model wheelchair lifts. There is a problem in the software that controls the lift's "up" function. If the "up" switch is released before the floor level limit switch is activated, the lift may continue its upward travel for approximately 1 second before stopping. The continued upward travel may overrun the floor level cut off point.

Risk

When the platform overruns the vehicle floor level and stops at an angle from 15-20 degrees, it is possible for a person in a wheelchair to tip over and for someone standing on the platform to fall, possibly resulting in injuries.

Remedy

Blue bird will notify owners and the repairs will be performed by authorized ricon dealers free of charge. Currently ricon is developing a software solution and is not available. Until the software solution is available, ricon will provide owners with a bulletin outlining proper wheelchair lift operation and will ship owners a dvd-based training aid to promote proper lift operation at no cost. Please see ricon's safety recall 09e-061. The safety recall began on may 4, 2010. Owners may contact ricon at 1‑818‑267‑3000 or blue bird at 1‑478‑822‑2242.

Recall number 10V136000

Affected vehicles

• Blue Bird All American 2010 2010
• Blue Bird Conventional 2010 2010
• Blue Bird Micro Bird 2010 2010