Opposition questions bus safety inspections after breakdown sends student to hospital

A student at a Mount Pearl junior high school was sent to hospital Monday afternoon after the bus they were riding had what the English School District describes as a mechanical failure and malfunction.

But in the legislature, a member of the opposition said a rear axle came off the bus.

The incident happened shortly after the bus left the school's parking lot, according to a statement from the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District. The district says no serious injuries were reported, but one student was sent to hospital for precautionary reasons after the breakdown caused a sudden jolt, prompting one student to complain of a sore back.

The District wouldn't make anyone available for an interview with CBC News Tuesday, but said the bus had been inspected as part of its regular schedule under the Highway Traffic Act.

That claim was backed up by Service NL Minister Sarah Stoodley in the House of Assembly Tuesday, who added the bus was inspected in the summer and a second time as recently as January.

"All school buses are inspected before the beginning of the school year, and then we have, you know, a rotation of inspections," Stoodley told the House Tuesday.

"The  bus in particular in question was inspected last summer, and then they had another inspection submitted to us as late as January of this year. So at the moment our highway enforcement officers are working very closely with the RNC to do, you know, an investigation."

PC Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans MHA Chris Tibbs challenged Stoodley's claim, questioning how a bus that was inspected in January could suffer a mechanical failure two months later.

"The rear axle almost came fully off the bus. For something that was inspected in January, that's very unusual. We're lucky this isn't a much more serious incident," Tibbs said. "There's something wrong. There's obviously something wrong. And all of our kids deserve better than that."

Stoodley said the January inspection was done by an official inspection station, which submitted a report on the bus to the department. She says those reports should be available publicly on the department's website.

"Whenever there's a school bus incident, it's taken very seriously."

The District suspended student transportation on school buses provided by Gladney's bus service earlier this year, citing safety concerns for students. The bus that failed on Monday was not part of that fleet, the statement read, adding that every bus in that fleet was inspected.

Stoodley says 100 per cent of buses are inspected before the start of the school year, and between 20 and 30 per cent of buses see rotational inspections over the course of the school year.

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