Bradford Area School District officials said Wednesday the axle
which fell off a school bus carrying 36 children on Dec. 4 was not
caused by sabotage.

Superintendent Sandra Romanowski told The Era that even though
there is still no written report from an engineer from Laidlaw
Transportation Management Systems – the company the district
contracts with to run its bus garage – she can orally report that
an investigation found no evidence of foul play.

“There is no evidence of sabotage or that anyone did any type of
thing to the bus,” said Romanowski.

“According to the information we have gotten, apparently there
is a coating that needs to be on the U-bolts to prevent corroding
to prevent this type of thing from happening,” she added. “The
U-bolts purchased appears to not have the proper coating.

“That is why they replaced the U-Bolts on the 1993, ’94, and ’95
busses.”

Romanowski said supervisor mechanics (from Laidlaw) thoroughly
examined the U-bolts on all of the busses and did not find any
corrosion.

“If you know what you are looking for, you can find it,” said
Romanowski.

She also said the district has stopped using the distributor of
the improperly coated U-bolts. She said they had been replaced at
some point since their initial purchase.

District Business Manager Kathy Kelly said any time the springs
are replaced, so are the U-bolts.

“We’ve gone the extra mile because we don’t even want to take
the chance with the older busses,” added Romanowski. “It may be we
didn’t need to replace (the U-bolts) but to make sure it didn’t
happen again we did it anyway.”

Two children were injured and were taken to Bradford Regional
Medical Center following the incident, which happened on Bolivar
Drive. The bus was carrying children from both School Street and
George G. Blaisdell elementary schools.

One child had a bruised ankle and the other a broken ankle.

When a school bus is involved in an accident and a child must
receive medical attention, it is the responsibility of the parent’s
insurance company to cover the cost of treatment.

Kelly said that fact involves a municipality tort law, where the
district is able to avoid potential lawsuits.

Romanowski said the district would pay if they were found to be
negligent.

“We would be willing to reimburse them with out-of-pocket
expenses,” said Romanowski, adding the district had already offered
that to parents.