The defect
Blue Bird Body Company (Blue Bird) is recalling certain 2006-2021 Vision and 2007-2013 All American school buses. The floor-mounted parking brake may fail to hold the vehicle stationary on an incline when the vehicle is loaded to its maximum weight, due to an insufficient application force. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 105, "Hydraulic and Electric Brake Systems."
The risk
A parking brake system that is set to an insufficient application force may result in an increased possibility of unintended vehicle movement, which increases the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Blue Bird will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the floor mounted park brake application force hand lever assembly and correct the application force, as necessary, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin June 24, 2020. Owners may contact Blue Bird customer service at 478-822-2242. Blue Bird's number for this recall is R20AO-SB.
NHTSA's own wording · initiated by MFR
Vehicles covered
| Model | Model years |
|---|---|
| Blue Bird ALL American | 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 |
| Blue Bird Vision School Bus | 2020, 2021 |
| Blue Bird Vision Transit Bus | 2020, 2021 |
Components: PARKING BRAKE
Model years in this recall
NHTSA complaints and the number of recall campaigns for each model year this recall covers.
| Model | Year | Complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Bird ALL American | 2007 | 4 | 21 |
| Blue Bird ALL American | 2008 | 4 | 32 |
| Blue Bird ALL American | 2009 | 3 | 33 |
| Blue Bird ALL American | 2010 | 0 | 42 |
| Blue Bird ALL American | 2011 | 0 | 35 |
| Blue Bird ALL American | 2012 | 0 | 30 |
| Blue Bird ALL American | 2013 | 1 | 28 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2006 | 0 | 17 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2007 | 3 | 21 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2008 | 1 | 30 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2009 | 6 | 28 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2010 | 2 | 25 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2011 | 0 | 22 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2012 | 1 | 19 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2013 | 2 | 25 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2014 | 0 | 22 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2015 | 4 | 27 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2016 | 2 | 27 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2017 | 1 | 28 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2018 | 0 | 35 |
| Blue Bird Vision | 2019 | 0 | 41 |
| Blue Bird Vision School Bus | 2020 | 0 | 29 |
| Blue Bird Vision School Bus | 2021 | 1 | 26 |
| Blue Bird Vision Transit Bus | 2020 | 0 | 15 |
| Blue Bird Vision Transit Bus | 2021 | 0 | 13 |
Other parking brake recalls in 2020
9 of the 782 recall campaigns reported to NHTSA in 2020 concerned the parking brake; Blue Bird Body Company filed 162 campaigns in all.
| 20V741000 30 Nov 2020 | Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. |
| 20V450000 31 Jul 2020 | Autocar, LLC |
| 20V259000 8 May 2020 | Blue Bird Body Company |
| 20V258000 8 May 2020 | Blue Bird Body Company |
| 20V235000 27 Apr 2020 | Blue Bird Body Company |
| 20V203000 8 Apr 2020 | Marion Body Works Inc. |
| 20V163000 20 Mar 2020 | SVI Trucks |
| 20V138000 10 Mar 2020 | Spartan Fire, LLC |
NHTSA recalls (public domain) · all recalls of 2020