Oklahoma schools now replacing flawed buses

Monday, April 25th 2005, 9:28 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- More than two years after safety warnings were issued for certain school buses made by Carpenter Manufacturing, Oklahoma schools are beginning to replace them.

The warning was issued in April 2003 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after a bus' roof collapsed during a rollover in Florida.

Randy McLerran with the state Education Department says money problems that were made worse by state funding shortfalls caused districts to continue using the Carpenter buses, but only on shorter, slower routes.

McLerran says another problem is that Carpenter went out of business in the late 1990s and there was no way to send the buses back.