UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Channel 9 asked if the problem has been fixed three months after a middle-school student was burned by hot liquid and steam on a Union County bus.
Anchor Scott Wickersham learned which local districts use those rear-engine buses and if they met a deadline to have a dangerous part replaced.
ARTICLE: Lawsuit filed after student severely burned by antifreeze on school bus
In May, a hose broke and a 13-year-old Porter Ridge Middle School student’s legs were burned by the hot steam and antifreeze from the engine.
CHOPPER 9 IMAGES: Scene of school bus mechanical issue
“She’s got some psychological things with this,” attorney William Goldfarb, who represents the family, said. “She often visualizes herself back on the bus with all the chaos.”
The family is suing the Union County Board of Education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for $500,000.
The incident could have been avoided if plastic fittings on the hoses were replaced with metal fittings, as suggested in a 2013 memo from the Department of Public Instruction to schools urging them to make the repair.
"It seems like if you were concerned about kids at all, you would do exactly what the memo said," Goldfarb said.
Many didn’t, and now the state is making the upgrade mandatory and gave schools a deadline of Aug. 1 to get it done.
Channel 9 learned 35 North Carolina school districts use the rear-engine buses.
Union County has 33 of those buses. Officials said 31 were fixed.
The one involved in the Porter Ridge accident and another have not been fixed because of the pending litigation over the girl's injuries.
In Ashe County, three buses, and Gaston County fixed 12 buses in 2013 when the state first recommended the repair.
Iredell-Statesville Schools officials said they fixed a rear-engine school bus and activity bus.
State leaders said every school district reported it had replaced the parts, but some parents wonder what could fail next.
"It's upsetting and scary because you wonder how many other things we don't know about, that we are blind to," Tammy Mercurio said.
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