Interpretation ID: aiam3891
Administrative Secretary
St. Peter's School
319 Lombard Street
Philadelphia
PA 19147;
Dear Ms. Sirine: This responds to your letter to me concerning your use of 13 and 1 passenger vans to transport students to and from extracurricular activities. In a telephone call on January 30, 1985, Mr. John Womack explained how our school bus regulations affect your school's choice of buses. This letter follows up on that conversation and confirms Mr. Womack's discussion of our regulations.; As I understand it, Pennsylvania has recently amended its law to defin 'bus' to mean 'a motor vehicle designed for carrying more than ten persons, including the driver.' The old definition had excluded the driver. In effect, a van designed to carry more than ten persons is now a 'bus' under Pennsylvania law. To transport students in a van of that size, a school would need to conform the van to the State's requirements for school buses.; The recent change in Pennsylvania law does not in any way affect ho our regulations apply to your 13 and 15 passenger vans. Your vehicles have always been classified as buses under Federal law, since under our regulations a bus is defined as a motor vehicle designed for carrying more than ten persons. Further, your vehicles are 'school buses' as that term is defined in the Vehicle Safety Act. The basic test under the Vehicle Safety Act is whether, as determined at the time of its first sale, a bus would be used to transport school children to or from school or related events. It is not relevant that the school uses the vehicles only occasionally. When the buses were sold to your school, it should have been clear to the dealer or manufacturer that the vehicles would be used as school buses.; It appears that St. Peter's purchase of new vans for the transportatio of students raises questions of compliance with Federal law by the dealers who sold you the vans. The Vehicle Safety Act required the dealer or manufacturer to sell vehicles which were certified as meeting all applicable motor vehicle safety standards. With respect to your future purchases of new vehicles, I urge you to keep in mind that the dealers are obligated to sell you vehicles that meet the school bus safety standards. They should know that they are at risk if they sell nonconforming vehicles.; The Vehicle Safety Act does not prohibit you from operating the 13 an 15 passenger vans. There might, however, be impediments under Pennsylvania State law. We administer a set of guidelines for state highway safety programs under the authority of the Highway Safety Act (Public Law 89-564). These guidelines, called Highway Safety Program Standards, cover a wide range of subjects, including school buses. Individual states have chosen to adopt some or all of the guidelines as their own policies governing their highway safety programs. Highway Safety Program Standard No. 17 (HSPS 17), specifies that a bus used to transport 16 or less students must either be identified with the words 'School Bus' and comply with the standard's requirements for color, mirrors and signal lamps, or be devoid of all of these characteristics. As it happens, however, a bus sold for use as a school bus is required by the Vehicle Safety Act to have warning lights and mirrors (as well as many other safety features). Because it must have this equipment, a 13 or 15 passenger bus in a State whose law fully incorporates HSPS 17 would have to be painted and signed as a school bus. For a state that has adopted this standard as its own policy, these specifications apply to activity buses as well as to the buses used for daily transportation.; I want to stress that HSPS 17 will affect you only if Pennsylvania ha adopted it and if Pennsylvania accepts our view that the specifications apply to activity buses. Your State officials will be able to give you more information about other State requirements for school buses.; Please let me know if you have any further questions. Sincerely, Frank Berndt, Chief Counsel