Faulty-bus problem hits prison system

Replacing faulty buses used by the prison conservation camps will cost $2.6 million.

The Nevada Board of Examiners voted to replace the vehicles, manufactured by Carpenter Buses, which has gone into bankruptcy since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ruled them unsafe. Faulty welds in the roofs of those buses, federal officials say, can cause them to collapse in an accident.

If a bus has more than 20 percent structural weld failures, the vehicle is redlined and can't be used.

Gov. Kenny Guinn agreed the unsafe buses must be replaced but asked what happens if Nevada's school districts need money to replace the same buses.

"Just because they're here in line first doesn't make them the priority," he said.

He said if school districts need money to replace their buses as well, he doesn't want to find that the state's limited contingency fund was drained by purchasing new vehicles for the prison system.

Carson City has 17 buses made by Carpenter. The school district reports four of them must be replaced because of breaks in the roof welds.

Nevada Highway Patrol Col. David Hosmer said as of February, there were 28 Carpenter buses in Douglas, one in Storey, one in Churchill and 25 in Washoe County. He said, however, he doesn't know how many of those buses need to be replaced.

State Forester Steve Robinson said he hopes there are fewer broken welds on school district buses than among his Conservation Camp buses, used to transport inmate work crews. He pointed out his buses often get used more like off-road vehicles than normal buses. As a result, he said, 23 of 26 conservation camp buses have been redlined.

He said he needs permission to order new vehicles in time for the coming summer fire season because the conservation camp crews are vital to Nevada's wildfire suppression efforts.

Guinn and fellow Board of Examiners members Secretary of State Dean Heller and Attorney General Brian Sandoval agreed to give the bus replacement plan tentative approval. But before the money is spent, they asked state Education Department officials to get more information from school districts on how many buses they will have to replace.

Contact Geoff Dornan at nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net or 687-8750.