None of the school buses in the Bemidji School District's fleet fit the description of the type of buses identified last week in a statewide maintenance alert, Transportation Coordinator Greg Liedl said.
The Minnesota State Patrol identified Friday a potential maintenance issue among school buses that may result in brake failure. The State Patrol issued an e-mail alert Friday afternoon through the Minnesota Department of Education to school districts across the state telling them about the issue, which involves GMC and Chevrolet models with chassis using the Bendix Hydro-Max Power Brake System.
All the buses in the Bemidji School District's fleet except for one have air brake systems, Leidl said. He noted that the one bus with a hydraulic brake system is an International model.
According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the potential maintenance issue is estimated to impact less than 10 percent of the buses in the nearly 13,000-vehicle fleet in the state. School districts with affected buses were ordered to immediately remove them from service and report them to the State Patrol.
