The defect
Daimler Trucks North America LLC (DTNA) is recalling certain 2014-2020 Thomas Built Saf-T-Liner EFX, Minotour, Saf-T-Liner C2, and Saf-T-Liner HDX school buses equipped with SynTec S3B or S3C seats. The seats may have been manufactured with styrene blocks that may not provide sufficient impact absorption in certain specific areas around the steel seat frame of the back support. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 222, "School Bus Passenger Seating and Crash Protection."
The risk
The lack of impact absorption increases the risk of injury in the event of a crash.
The remedy
DTNA will notify owners, and dealers will install additional impact material between the re-bond back and the vinyl back cover to increase the amount of absorption, free of charge. DTNA issued owners an interim notification on November 29, 2019. The recall began June 22, 2020. Owners may contact DTNA customer service at 1-800-547-0712. DTNA's number for this recall is FL-832.
NHTSA's own wording · initiated by MFR
Vehicles covered
| Model | Model years |
|---|---|
| Thomas Built Buses Minotour | 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
| Thomas Built Buses SAF-T-Liner C2 | 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
| Thomas Built Buses SAF-T-Liner EFX | 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
| Thomas Built Buses SAF-T-Liner HDX | 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
Components: SEATS
Model years in this recall
NHTSA complaints and the number of recall campaigns for each model year this recall covers.
Other seats recalls in 2019
38 of the 880 recall campaigns reported to NHTSA in 2019 concerned the seats; Daimler Trucks North America LLC filed 213 campaigns in all.
| 19V867000 6 Dec 2019 | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. |
| 19V800000 6 Nov 2019 | Daimler Vans USA, LLC |
| 19V786000 1 Nov 2019 | Thor Motor Coach |
| 19V762000 24 Oct 2019 | General Motors LLC |
| 19V759000 24 Oct 2019 | Chrysler (FCA US LLC) |
| 19V666000 18 Sept 2019 | Daimler Vans USA, LLC |
| 19V651000 11 Sept 2019 | Ford Motor Company |
| 19V633000 28 Aug 2019 | Ford Motor Company |
NHTSA recalls (public domain) · all recalls of 2019