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State Senator Calls For All Corrections Buses To Be Halted For Brake Check
July 21, 2016
A state senator is calling for the Florida Department of Corrections to stop transporting inmate on prison system buses until each one is inspected.
Sen. Greg Evers has asked Gov. Rick Scott to halt all Department of Corrections bus transportation until the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division of the Florida Highway Patrol can inspect the buses for safety and compliance. The request came Wednesday, the day after the brakes failed on a loaded FDOC bus near Crestview.
Two corrections officers were transporting 50 inmates when the brakes malfunctioned on their bus when going down the I-10 off-ramp onto Highway 85.
“The safety of our servicemen and women, inmates in our care, and innocent bystanders should always be a top priority,” Evers said. “The actions of our government to support our security and safety should always be a priority: Lives are at stake.”
Comments
13 Responses to “State Senator Calls For All Corrections Buses To Be Halted For Brake Check”
About two years ago I spoken with Mr. Evers when he was taking a tour of our prison and told him about some of the problem we are have in DOC and he still hasn’t done anything about them. Now he he’s running for congress. He can’t fix one department in this state, how’s he going to fix anything in this country?
This is a disgrace these vehicles all are a joke state will never spend the $ if you are an employee of FDOC get out Now there’s more $ and better jobs everywhere The whole DOC and senator Richardson and the rest of the meth pipe addicts are idiots lol
This would be a good time to write this senator and send him this link to this story. His attention is on this and he’s only a man. He can’t magically know things unless people in the know and passionate about things bring issues forward. I don’t know anything about this but apparently some of you do. Good Luck.
Pretty sure that the Fleet is decentralized, which means the DOC is DIRECTLY responsible to ensure that its Fleet is SAFE and SERVICEABLE at all times! I would suggest getting the IG & OSHA do an in-depth inspection of all DOC Vehicle Maintenance complexes and Fleet Administrators to see if special inspections and PMI are happening as prescribed. This is yet another area that DOC grossly mis-manages and then whines about funding and of course, like Hillary, NO ONE will be or should be held accountable…
I was a motor pool officer for a few years in the 2010’s over two institutions. . With the exception of the brand new vans, perhaps even then not one D/C vehicle would pass a DOT inspection. Every vehicle is treated as a “run to fail”Tallassee is not aware how bad it is because over the years the odometer records they have are incorrect .Back in the day odometers rolled over at 99 thousand miles back to zero, so with the very high turnover the department has tallahasse thinks the car has 80 thousand not the real 380 thousand miles on it! Sometimes the odometers are just broken and they never change tallahasse but 200 miles per day are put on the car/van , no money to fix something like an odometer! I have had to coat the entire inside of 12 year old trailer tires with tire bead sealer to get them to quit leaking through the dry rot cracks in the side walls.Once our 1974 model bucket truck was being driven to go fix a perimeter light bulb and the fan blade broke off (stress cracks from age) It launched straight up penetrated the radiator, the hood the catwalk above that flew into the sky and landed in the wreck field embedding itself into the earth, wreck yard was full of inmates at the time. No money to fix so i just ground off the one blade, hey there were 4 more blades right? Once i had an officer come up from a 3 hour drive and said that the van was not steering right and sounded funny.I pulled it into the shop put it on the lift and the wheel fell off, not just the tire , all of it the rotor bearings axle all of it.Only the rotor being in a bind kept the wheel one at all. Our parking lot had flooded two weeks prior and i was not allowed to look at the van because it was our best van (a 1998 ford) and they couldn’t spare it always on the road.Driving the van back and forth a million times in knee deep water washed the grease out of the bearings that caused a meltdown two weeks later. We once had a state environmental lady come out for an inspection. She almost freaked out! She basically gave us a list of a million things to do hand written nothing official, all of which to fix would cost money, so warden said NOPE. I knew where this was going so i kept (personally) every copy of every email and repair i did or was denied to do.BTW NO ONE that made any of those decisions are still at either of those institutions now, so it is just a game of hot potato when it comes to responsibility. Basically 98% of the department’s fleet needs to be replaced. 75% of all vehicles are an endangerment to society. Over half of the transport vans are inhumane to inmates because the rear a/c did not work and no windows opened I was denied all money to fix anything to do with rear a/c.It was all i could do to keep the front a/c working after begging for parts. .Nothing like sitting in a hot van in 100 degree weather with the windows rolled up. There will be nothing done about the vans, oh they will talk crap but when they see what it will cost to fix it they will continue to ignore it.At most It wil all be investigated and end up being always the lowest level worker’s they can pin it on’s fault, this time i’d say regional maintance cheif or someone like that, OH btw this was all BEFORE Rick Scott slashed 1/3rd of the departments budget can you imagine it now……..
So mr Evers heard about a break down and decided the whole fleet should be checked. Come to century. C. I. Sir I guarantee you can see six or eight vehicles a day break down its really pathetic that this would be brought up because you want to look like you are involved so you can get a vote the department of corrections is ran worse than a third world country looking for clean water it is really shameful and you sir should be ashamed t
You, dear Senator and your peers hold the purse strings that fund the FDOC. You have failed to properly fund the DC for years while demanding more be done for less. What will DC have to cut today to bring transport busses up to standard? Cut staff positions, cut retirement, cut pay, cut facility maintenance, cut medical care, cut inmate food? The economic disaster we struggle with to this day and the policies of our governor have contributed to the decline of the quality of staff and infastructure of the agency. Therefore I propose that you bright boys and girls up there in Tallahassee figure out exactly how to unscrew the fiscal mess that is today’s DC, not by telling someone else to figure it out, but by figuring it out yourself so you can experience the consequences of your past legislation. If running that agency was your responsibility today you would be writing checks so fast the pen would melt.
Most of the prison on the road today have over a million miles on the frames. I have seen the stress cracks in the frames, plywood covering up holes in the floors ect. Not to mention the drivers spend countless hours on the road in the heat of summer with the windows down because the heat from the motor into the cab without air conditioning.. I can remember dipping towels into out coolers and wrapping around your head because you were afraid of passing out at 75 mph from the heat. Taking our ice water and pouring into our boot because of the heat coming off the motor. I could go on and on. The ones who decide on where the money is spent should spend a 12 hour day on a prison bus, better yet drive that bus.
I’m a retired DC employee. The fleet has been dilapidated since the 1980’s. Only the administrators get new vehicles ( if that). Probation officers get “new cars”‘with 60-70k miles on them as far as transport vehicles, it is a crime the condition of those vehicles are in. Just like surprise visits to the prison, Sen Evers, you might invite the OPB staff and legislators to take a trip from Tallahassee to Lake Butler on one one the transport buses or vans.
If you think the buses are bad see the rest of the fleet 10 to 20 year old vehicles being used and when broke are only pieced together to run another few miles to fall apart. The fleet of the DOC is a joke. FHP, FWC, DOT all get new vehicles every year, DOC maybe gets new vehicles once in a blue moon. And yet we are tasked with protecting the public. Somewhere someone needs to do something about the Vehicles
Sir…that’s a big can of worms to open. Probably 90 percent of DOC vehicles are not road safe and have been that way for many years….but I don’t see you shutting the transports down. It’s all political!!! Just keep cutting corners and resources as usual. It’s a liability on DOC and everyone affiliated with them to knowingly put the staff….inmates….and public in harm’s way.
Hahhah our fleet has been needing replaced for years…. policy used to say transport vehicles will be remived from transoort duties after 150 thousand miles…ive seen transoort vans still rolling after 400 tbousand… and told to keep using them…. the reality is they dont want to know how delapitated our fleet is…. that includes buses, vans and any other vehicle to be honest…. now that a bus almost kills someone its big news, at least for today…. tommorrow the politucians will worry about tee time and lunch, they dont truly care about the DOC and her people….
Hey senator stop by century correction and check our equipment out most of it don’t crank if it does it overheats and if it runs good you can’t go to far in it because the tires are bad. But besides that senator seems like you be calling for a lot of things lately how about standing up and calling for a wage increase for officers thank you