SB-10057495- 2775

13 December 2013

VIA EMAIL & MAIL

Associate Administrator for Enforcement
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE.
Washington, DC 20590

Attention: Early Warning Division (NVS-217)

Dear Sir or Madam:
Appended, pursuant to 49 CFR §579.5, is a copy of a letter forwarded today to our customers
recommending that they disable certain seats on their New Flyer transit buses.
Should you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to advise.
Thank you,
NEW FLYER OF AMERICA INC.

By:

Kerry Legg
Vehicle Safety & Regulatory Compliance Manager
(204) 224-6706

Headquarters/
Winnipeg Facility
711 Kernaghan Ave.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R2C 3T4 Canada
Ph: (204) 224-1251

Customer
Services
25 DeBaets St.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R2J 4G5 Canada
Ph: (204) 982-8400

New Product
Development
Unit 7, 45 Beghin Ave.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R2J 4B9 Canada
Ph: (204) 982-8413

Crookston
Facility
214 5th Ave. SW
Crookston, Minnesota
56716 USA
Ph: (218) 281-5752

St. Cloud
Facility
6200 Glenn Carlson Dr.
St. Cloud, Minnesota
56301 USA
Ph: (320) 203-0576

www.newflyer.com

711 Kernaghan Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada
R2C 3T4

December 13, 2013
BY COURIER AND EMAIL

Subject:
Dear

Improving Passenger Safety on Transit Buses with Front-Facing Flip-Up Seats
:

As the market leader in the US and Canadian heavy-duty transit bus industry, New Flyer has an unwavering
commitment to safety. We have discovered a rare safety risk that potentially exposes your transit bus
passengers to catastrophic injuries and want to bring this industry-wide issue to your immediate attention.
This letter addresses safety concerns related to the first row of front-facing flip-up bus seats where no barrier
exists immediately behind the open areas intended for wheelchair use. In hard-braking incidents or collisions
over the past several years, we have become aware that three passengers were thrown forward from these
seats and sustained quadriplegic injuries. Catastrophic passenger injuries from seat-expulsion in this manner
have been extremely rare. In fact, over 21 years and after billions of passenger-miles, New Flyer has
encountered only these three such serious incidents involving its buses. The buses were owned by different
transit agencies and were manufactured in compliance with government regulations and each customer’s
unique specifications.
Although these were isolated incidents, New Flyer has made the decision to discontinue installing front-row
seats without barriers on our buses going forward. We are aware that this may reduce transit bus seating
capacity, but believe passenger safety is paramount.
New Flyer does not believe the current seating configuration is defective nor are we issuing a recall. New
Flyer is however recommending that operators disable these seats in their existing transit fleets so that the
seats remain in the locked upright position, thereby continuing to act as a barrier to the seats immediately
behind. In most cases this can be achieved by simply cutting the seat locking rod. New Flyer will issue a
technical bulletin that describes this procedure, and will provide labels at no cost to operators to affix to the
disabled seats advising passengers that the seats were disabled for safety reasons.
If you would like a supply of labels, please
call the New Flyer Parts Order Desk at
1-800-665-2637. If you have any questions
regarding the locking rod disabling
procedure, please call Mr. Kerry Legg,
New Flyer’s Vehicle Safety and Regulatory
Compliance Manager, at 204-224-6706.
Safety is our shared priority.
Sincerely,

Paul Smith,
Executive Vice-President, Sales and
Marketing
cc:

(email only)