BUS SAFETY CONCERNS

At a public meeting last week about the Multi-Cultural Center of Sioux Falls, City Councilor De Knudson shared a plea from a citizen.

"Please look at history of buses/inspections," it said.

The center uses at least two vehicles to transport dozens of schoolchildren to programs at the facility on North Main Avenue. For employees and at least one of its after-school programs, they have been an ongoing concern for years.

On a field trip during a summer camp operated by the center, a school bus driver from another town "threatened to turn the MCC in for endangering kids" because of the condition of its bus, a staff member stated in a 2008 report obtained by the Argus Leader. The employee was extremely concerned about safety, according to the report compiled that year by a private consultant working with the Multi-Cultural Center.

"One of the drivers made a comment once, 'I would hate to know how many laws we break each day,' " the report states.

A separate study this year, by the University of South Dakota Government Research Bureau, did not cover bus safety but was critical of the center's management.

Concerns that the buses have not been inspected have been resolved, says Doug Barthel, the Sioux Falls police chief and a member of the Multi-Cultural Center board.

"As a board member, I do know the buses have been inspected and any issues were brought up to standard," he said. "As a board member, we're very satisfied that the buses have been put into proper order and they are safe."

The South Dakota Highway Patrol was involved in those inspections, as they are with other vehicles used by churches and other nonprofit groups. The Highway Patrol inspected one of the Multi-Cultural Center's two vehicles in late February, and the other one in early March, said Terry Woster, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

Maintenance isn't the only concern involving the buses. Discipline problems have been an ongoing issue.

In 2006, one of the tutors in a reading program at the center identified transportation of the children as a major problem.

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100426/NEWS/4260324/1001