equipment on motorcoaches and school buses. In addition, the Volpe report confirmed how quickly school buses burn. While it states that the vast major- ity of passengers were able to evacuate safely, it cited the 1988 church bus fire in Carrollton, Kentucky, which resulted in 27 fatalities and 34 injuries. More recently, on Dec. 12, 2017 in rural Iowa, a 74-year-


old bus driver and a 16-year-old student died when the bus they were in caught fire after becoming stuck in a ditch. Preliminary findings from the National Trans- portation Safety Board indicate that a fire started in the engine compartment, while another started at the rear of the bus, as the driver tried to accelerate out of the ditch. It remains inconclusive why the driver and student could not exit the bus. That fire is still under investigation. Scott MacRitchie, national sales manager for Firetrace


International, said he has also seen growing interest in fire suppression systems by student transporters during the past few years. Firetrace manufactures a fire suppres- sion system that is tailored for front-engine school buses. “Although there is no national mandate, many states have adopted laws surrounding new school buses, that


they shall be equipped with fire suppression from the factory,” MacRitchie said. “The laws are more prevalent in paratransit, but are slowly becoming more common for standard school buses.”


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34 School Transportation News • MARCH 2019


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