Special Report: Records Of School Van Involved In Accident Revealed

In March, a Coachella Valley Unified School District van rolled three times on Interstate 10. Califonria Highway Patrol said the tread on the back left-side tire separated from its core.

During the official investigation a lot wasn’t adding up, and the district wasn’t talking. So KESQ investigated why it happened and found out some startling information about the vehicle’s maintenance records.

Under California’s open records law, we requested the van’s maintenance records. For weeks the district refused to hand them over. The District’s lawyer, Jeff Smith, in Huntington Beach stalled for weeks.

By law, we had a right to see the documents. KESQ lawyers got involved and demanded the district’s lawyer turn over the documents. KESQ finally got what we asked for.

After reviewing 52 pages of documents, we found out a lot. The tire pressure didn’t get checked as often as it should and no one rotated the tires.

John Fitzgerald manages Ramona Tire in Palm Desert. “Most tread separation usually happens when tires are under inflated or overloaded,” he said.

The documents revealed the tire pressure last got checked in September 2010, six months before the crash happened.

“Air pressure should be checked everyday on those, if not, weekly,” said Fitzgerald.

The district did inspect the van about every 3,000 miles. That doesn’t ensure the tires are safe. Some vans aren’t driven often and can go months without racking up the needed 3,000 miles for an inspection. After traveling 15,000 miles, the tires on the crashed van never got rotated.

“You need to rotate the tires at least every 5,000 miles. That means someone is inspecting them and checking for air pressure. That way you won’t have any tread separation,” said Fitzgerald.

The actual tires involved were OHTSU Negotiators. The tires are some of the cheapest generic tires you can buy. Back in 2008, they cost the district $64 per tire.

Monica Mora, a student at Desert Mirage High School, got hurt in the crash. The California Highway Patrol said she didn’t have her seat belt on. Her mother, Maria, also got hurt. Monica’s father, Martin Mora told us days after the crash that he wasn’t happy with the way the district was handling the crash.

Monica is recovering, but her family is having a hard time paying a lot of her medical bills.

It’s still unclear why the district doesn’t inspect its vehicles more often. The district’s lawyer hasn’t returned our most recent phone call for this story.