Published: June 30, 2009 11:28 pm      

Mineral BOE upholds bus driver’s suspension

Running out of diesel fuel considered safety issue

KEYSER, W.Va. — Though it seemed a minor issue to some, the Mineral County Board of Education unanimously upheld the suspension of a school bus driver who let her vehicle run out of diesel fuel in May.

“On May 8, 2009, Mrs. (Shannon) Fink set out on her morning run and ran out of gas, Kim Croyle, legal counsel for the school board administration, said. “That might seem like a small thing, but when (a bus driver runs) out of gas, there is no steering, no brakes. They are reminded repeatedly to make sure to fill the tank. They are required by the state of West Virginia to do so. If that had been done, we wouldn’t be here today.”

Fink appeared at the board’s Monday public meeting, appealing the 3 1/2-day suspension that she had been issued on the Monday following the incident.

Transportation Director John Haines said that in his three years in the position, he had never had a report of a driver running out of fuel as Fink had done.

Fink said she checked her fuel gauge the morning of the incident — all that is required by the state — and she believed she had a half tank before she left to do her morning route. That would be enough to make a full day’s route, she said, and she planned to refill the tank before making the afternoon run; she usually refilled when she got to a quarter tank.

She said she had just turned onto Limestone Road in Keyser and was traveling north when the bus stopped. There were no noises to signal the stop or a problem, the bus simply “shut off,” Fink told the board.

The bus came to a halt on the flat road with no difficulty as the back-up “spring brakes” were able to stop the bus’ momentum.

When she attempted to restart it, she said the fuel gauge indicated she still had a quarter tank.

Haines said that when crews arrived, Fink had found other drivers to get her passengers to school, but there was still no sign of a problem with the bus. Even adding an additional five gallons of fuel could not get it to start. Getting it back to the garage, he said the mechanics reported to him that the bus was so depleted of fuel that they had to bleed the injector lines in the bus to get fuel to the engine and add an additional 10 gallons of fuel because the tank was empty.

Prior to this, he said he had received no complaints for the bus, and Fink said that she had never experienced any problems, though she couldn’t be sure the gauge was accurate.

Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth said that he felt Fink wasn’t consistent when she told them the amount she had believed was in the tank, and that she was disregarding requests that she have enough diesel fuel in the bus to finish her bus run and to ensure that there was always more than half a tank.

He said he sent a letter to Fink saying that he considered her disregard for policy “insubordination and neglect of duty. The safety of students was compromised.”

Fink said she used to fuel up every four days, and that the reminders about the fueling were always given in the winter, along with reminders of putting additives in the fuel so that it didn’t gel up. The reminders were not given as consistently throughout the rest of the year, she said. She added that this was the first time in four years as a regular driver and two as a substitute that she had ever run empty.

John Roush, attorney with the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, said he doubted this was the first time a driver had run out of fuel, and cited two previous examples Fink presented of fellow drivers who had done the same as she had.

Contact Sarah Moses at smoses@times-news.com.