Smoke From the Wheel Well With Wheelchair Riders Aboard
At 2:45 p.m. you are driving a 44-passenger transit-style bus with 16 students aboard, including two wheelchair users secured with tie-downs and a 9-year-old with autism who has bolted from the bus before. You are on a rural two-lane road with a 3-foot shoulder; a drainage canal runs parallel about 10 feet off the pavement on the right. Light rain is falling. As you accelerate from a stop you smell burning rubber and see gray smoke drifting from the right rear wheel well in your mirror. Your bus is 400 feet from a wide gravel driveway on the left. The engine still runs and the brakes feel normal. Your radio works, cell coverage is marginal, the fire extinguisher is beside the driver's seat, and you are alone with the students.
1. Your choices are to stop immediately, move 400 feet to the gravel driveway, or continue 2 miles to school. Which do you choose and why?
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Smoke from a wheel well on a moving bus usually means a dragging brake, an overheated bearing, or a tire rubbing, any of which can become a fire in minutes. Continuing 2 miles is out. Between stopping in place and moving 400 feet, the deciding factors are the canal 10 feet off the right pavement and the narrow 3-foot shoulder: unloading 16 students, two in wheelchairs, onto that shoulder puts them next to traffic and water. A short, slow move to the wide gravel driveway improves the evacuation site and gets the bus away from the canal. So reduce speed, turn on the hazards, cover the 400 feet while watching the mirror for flame, and stop in the driveway with the bus angled so the smoking side faces away from where students will gather. If smoke thickens, flame appears, or the brakes begin to fade, stop immediately where you are and evacuate.
2. Where do you place the students, and how do you manage the two wheelchair users and the student with autism?
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Unload to the left side, upwind of the smoke, at least 100 feet from the bus and well off the pavement, in the gravel lot and not toward the canal. Count heads by name as they come down the steps; the number is 16. Use the lift for the wheelchair users only if it works reliably and the bus is stable and not burning near the door. If there is any doubt, do not delay: get help from older students and any arriving adults and carry them to the assembly point, leaving the chairs behind if necessary. For the student with autism, assign a buddy and keep him between two people, away from the road and water, with a simple repeated instruction. Do not send anyone back aboard for backpacks, phones, or medication. Keep the group together and repeat the count every couple of minutes until relief arrives.
3. What do you do about the fire, and whom do you notify?
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Call 911 first, or have a responsible adult call, then call dispatch. Use the extinguisher only on a small fire, standing with your back to an exit and never crawling into the wheel well or under the bus; a wheel-well fire often re-flashes after the extinguisher empties. Do not open the engine compartment wide if you suspect an engine fire. Keep all students at the assembly point, and do not release a child to a parent who arrives unless you sign the child out for the responding administrator or officer. When the fire department clears the scene, request a replacement bus and have this bus towed and inspected before it carries students again. Complete an incident report the same day: where the smoke came from, how far you moved, evacuation time, head counts, injuries, and who was notified. Have anyone exposed to smoke evaluated.