May 21--The driver of a charter bus that caught fire Monday while filled with Eau Claire North High School students apparently knew the vehicle had a flat tire before starting the field trip.
That's what North principal Dave Valk said Tuesday he has learned since looking into the incident in which the bus caught fire less than two miles after leaving the school.
Luckily, Valk said, no one was injured in the incident. But he said he is troubled by the driver electing to begin the field trip to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on a flat tire with a bus full of 32 senior economics students and four chaperones.
"That whole decision to put kids on the bus when there's a known problem is just really disturbing to me," Valk said.
The principal confirmed the school received a phone call from a neighbor warning about a tire on the charter bus that was flat or low on pressure and said a teacher also expressed concern to the driver about the condition of one of the rear driver's side tires before the bus departed.
"It's looking more and more like this was a known problem, and my understanding is it was in the same area where the fire broke out," Valk said.
A report from the Eau Claire Fire Department indicated the bus driver, Clark Sheerar of Mondovi, said he had a problem with a back tire and was on his way to change out the bus when the fire started.
When the inside of the bus began to get smoky, Sheerar pulled the vehicle onto the shoulder on North Hastings Way just south of Seymour Road and told students and chaperones to exit. The occupants were safely evacuated and loaded onto a replacement bus about 40 minutes after firefighters were called.
Firefighters reported seeing heavy black smoke and flames coming from under the bus, which sustained an estimated $50,000 in damage.
Duane DeBruyne, a spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said motor coach drivers are required by federal law to do a pre-trip inspection to ensure the vehicle is in safe operating condition.
While DeBruyne wouldn't comment specifically on the Eau Claire incident, he said any driver of a bus with a known problem would be expected to make arrangements for another vehicle.
"A driver should not begin or continue the trip if they know there's some mechanical deficiency or safety problem on the vehicle," DeBruyne said.
Deputy Chief Al Bertrang of the Eau Claire Fire Department declined to speculate on the appropriateness of actions in Monday's bus fire. But he said there is always some fire risk when driving on a flat tire and vehicles with larger fuel tanks generally pose greater fire and environmental risks in such cases.
Mike Bernard, the owner of Bernard Bus Service, the Chatfield, Minn.-based company that operated Monday's ill-fated charter, didn't return several calls Tuesday seeking comment. A dispatcher indicated the company, which recently acquired Rochester, Minn.-based Bold Lines, has an office and a shop where it stores buses in Eau Claire.
Though the students were able to successfully complete the field trip, Valk said, he can't help but think the potentially tragic incident could have been avoided.
"You always think of a worst-case scenario, and this could have been a very different result if a few circumstances would have been different," Valk said.
He said he takes the incident very seriously and vowed to continue to investigate it as thoroughly as possible.
"We take pride in safety above all else," Valk said. "That's the ultimate trust the community puts in us. That's why this is so disturbing to me."
Lindquist can be reached at 715-833-9209, 800-236-7077 or [email protected].
Copyright 2014 - The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis.
