School Bus Loses Wheel With 30 Students Aboard
EAST LIBERTY (KDKA) – A routine bus ride for kids heading to school became anything but Tuesday morning.
A wheel on a bus transporting students to Pittsburgh Obama Academy came loose on Route 28.
"The wheel fell off of the rear passenger side of the axel", says State Trooper Robin Mungo. "When the trooper arrived, the vehicle was in the right northbound lane on Route 28."
The bus, owned by Ricketts Transportation, passed an inspection on Aug. 13, according to the company and the Pittsburgh Board of Education.
The bus, however, did not recieve state inspections.
"That bus was not in compliance with state inspection. It should not have been on the road. That [state] inspection expired on the last day of August," Mungo notes.
"We do not remove the wheels off of school buses to inspect them," Mungo continues. "That is something that takes place during a state inspection where they actually remove those wheels and able to look behind them."
State police say they have inspected the bus to try and determine how the wheel came loose. In addition, they have inspected other buses to make sure they are safe to be on the road.
There were 30 students on board in grades 6-8, but none were injured in the incident.
Another bus was dispatched in order to pick the students up and bring them to school, but this process did not go quite smoothly either.
"When the other bus arrived, it had an expired registration sticker and they had to call for an additional bus," Mungo says.
The Pittsburgh Board of Education says they will evaluate their current contract with Ricketts, as they've had problems with the company in the past.
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