There has been media coverage about problems with defective welding on Carpenter Type "A" "B" "C" and "D" school buses which were built at the Carpenter plant in Mitchell, Indiana, prior to the plant closing in late 1995. While it is believed that there are approximately 119 Carpenter school buses included in this group that are owned by school districts and contractors in Minnesota, no Carpenter buses built at the Mitchell, Indiana plant are owned by the Saint Paul Public Schools or by our school bus contractors.
The NHTSA Carpenter School Bus Advisory Issued in June 2003 states in part "on March 20, 2003 in Alachua County, Florida, an 83-passenger Carpenter school bus rolled over onto its roof, causing the roof to collapse down to the seat level. Inspection of the crash vehicle revealed numerous broken and defective welds in the roof and pillar structure. Normally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would conduct a full-scale investigation and if a defect determination were made, would order the manufacturer to conduct a safety recall. However, since Carpenter is no longer in business, there is no one that NHTSA can hold accountable to develop a remedy for this problem.
However, NHTSA is concerned about this problem. The purpose of this advisory is to provide school districts and school bus operators with guidance on what to do if they have any of these buses within their fleets. Unfortunately, given the age and the type of weld failures occurring in these buses, there is no single repair that can assure adequate performance in a crash. Since NHTSA is not the vehicle manufacturer and does not know all the relevant details about the design and construction of these of these buses, it cannot recommend any particular modification or repair procedure. "
The complete NHTSA advisory is available below in PDF format.
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