Highway Accident Report--B and J Trucking Company Truck Tractor/Coachella Valley Unified School District Schoolbus Collision, State Route 86, Near Coachella, California, April 23, 1980

摘要

About 3:25 p.m., on April 23, 1980, a truck tractor was traveling north on California State Route 86, a two-lane rural highway, when its left front tire blew out. The tractor swerved to the left, crossed the centerline, and collided head-on with a southbound schoolbus that was transporting nine teenaged students home from school. The bus driver and three students were killed; the truck driver and six students were injured. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the truck company to properly maintain its vehicle which resulted in a blow-out of the left front tractor tire, causing the truck driver to lose control of his vehicle. Contributing to the accident was the lack of a truck company preventive maintenance program and an inadequate California Highway Patrol inspection that should have detected the deteriorated condition of the tire before it blew out.