Friday, February 29, 2008
Follow Up on Injured Huntley Bus Driver
It's no secret that Huntley School Board President Shawn Green is a close friend of Huntley school district Chief Operations Officer Glenn Stewart.
He is a consistent defender of Stewart's decisions.
After all, Stewart is a former District 158 school board member. Stewart is Green's and the board majority's inside guy.
Take a look at this email from Green to Superintendent John Burkey and the Board of Education members.
It refers to a serious electrical injury to a bus driver that has required days of hospitalization:
He couldn't be trying to convey either of those two thoughts.
Being a suburban police officer, Green's department undoubtedly has procedures for reporting and investigating serious on-the-job injuries.
We know that when Chicago policemen gets shot, for instance, we even hear it on the news.
No special reporting to the aldermen is necessary because the media are all over such events.
Not so in McHenry County.
Fights occur at school that taxpayers don't read about.
Maybe one of the Heralds will report on the serious electric cord mishap to the Huntley school bus driver on Friday.
My guess is that the accident in question is serious enough to require a report to OSHA, the federal job safety agency.
I don't know about Green, but, if I were on a governing board, I would be interested in accidents that serious.
= = = =
Thanks to the commenter below for an update on the bus driver's condition:
"Question? Someone’s life was seriously altered because of this incident, and all you can say is brainless comments about a board member!
"My prayers go out to this employee who was a wonderful bus driver to my children, and with a bit of luck she recovers with no long term side effects.
"For the record thou she was released, and is no longer in the hospital, but still is experiencing serious complications.
"Also interesting enough all of the power cords that were laying in water, ice, and snow were removed today, merely more than one entire week after the incident.
"I am not so overconfident of these administrators’ actions that were so punctually and discreetly executed to secure the lives of the employees that transport our children, but what the heck; they weren’t plugging the buses in everyday, were they?"
He is a consistent defender of Stewart's decisions.
After all, Stewart is a former District 158 school board member. Stewart is Green's and the board majority's inside guy.
Take a look at this email from Green to Superintendent John Burkey and the Board of Education members.It refers to a serious electrical injury to a bus driver that has required days of hospitalization:
"John- This type of thing is not board business, and therefore I wouldn't expect to be notified. I don't imagine a village board gets notified every time a police officer, firefighter, etc., gets injured on duty."Could it be that when an employee gets severely shocked by electricity and is in the hospital for many days, Green has no interest in knowing about it or if unsafe work conditions caused the employee to be hurt?
He couldn't be trying to convey either of those two thoughts.
Being a suburban police officer, Green's department undoubtedly has procedures for reporting and investigating serious on-the-job injuries.
We know that when Chicago policemen gets shot, for instance, we even hear it on the news.
No special reporting to the aldermen is necessary because the media are all over such events.
Not so in McHenry County.
Fights occur at school that taxpayers don't read about.
Maybe one of the Heralds will report on the serious electric cord mishap to the Huntley school bus driver on Friday.
My guess is that the accident in question is serious enough to require a report to OSHA, the federal job safety agency.
I don't know about Green, but, if I were on a governing board, I would be interested in accidents that serious.
= = = =
Thanks to the commenter below for an update on the bus driver's condition:
"Question? Someone’s life was seriously altered because of this incident, and all you can say is brainless comments about a board member!
"My prayers go out to this employee who was a wonderful bus driver to my children, and with a bit of luck she recovers with no long term side effects.
"For the record thou she was released, and is no longer in the hospital, but still is experiencing serious complications.
"Also interesting enough all of the power cords that were laying in water, ice, and snow were removed today, merely more than one entire week after the incident.
"I am not so overconfident of these administrators’ actions that were so punctually and discreetly executed to secure the lives of the employees that transport our children, but what the heck; they weren’t plugging the buses in everyday, were they?"
Labels: Glenn Stewart, Huntley School District 158, John Burkey, OSHA, School Bus, Shawn Green
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Huntley School Bus Driver Hospitalized after Electrical Shock
My father let me use his Mercedes diesel while I was running for county treasurer in 1966 and after I was elected. (He went through both a Cadillac and a Mercedes stage.)
To make sure the underpowered 190D started after cold nights in our detached garage, we plugged an electric cord running from the block into an extension cord.
During really cold days, I'd run an extension cord out from my ground floor office to the car, which was parked with the other elected officials' cars behind the old courthouse on the Woodstock Square.
The delinquent personal property collection operation was located in the basement's southwest corner right in front of the car's parking space.
Marge Rom once did an expose in her Crystal Lake News about how I was stealing electricity from the courthouse.
Picture and all.
This is an overly long way of relating that I know that diesels have to be kept warm in order to start on cold days.
Even Metra now plugs in its diesel engines, rather than running them all night as they did when I lived within sight of the old police and fire station and, hence, within earshot of the engines parked all night on the main line sidings.
A District 158 bus driver was apparently seriously injured some days ago while making a similar effort to keep a bus engine block warm.
Information I have received indicates that the electric shock was bad enough to turn the bus driver's hand black.
The event happened in the District 158 bus yard right next to the administration building.
Each bus driver hooks up to an electrical connection so the diesel engine in his or her bus will start in the morning.
Normally there is a circuit breaker that would sense, trip and shut off when a dangerous voltage condition is detected. You have something similar in your bathroom and kitchen if you have a newer home or a re-wired one.
Of course it really helps if the circuit breaker, which I'm told is known as a “GFI” breaker, doesn't malfunction.
Details are sketchy.
Superintendent John Burkey hasn't informed the Board of Education about the accident, even though the bus driver is apparently still in the hospital.
Many days after the accident.
There's a rumor that a whole lot of installed, but malfunctioning GFI circuit breakers were being replaced on Tuesday night.
October 10, 2007, someone wrote under a Northwest Herald story that Glenn Stewart, District 158's Chief Operating Officer, was a mechanical engineer and Doug Renkosik, who is in charge of Building and Grounds, was a civil engineer.
Even if they aren't professionally so trained, it would seem just about anyone would think that having bus drivers pick up live electrical outlets that have been on the ground in wet conditions could be a bit dangerous.
Maybe OSHA should or will weigh in on the issue.
I wonder if anyone has notified that federal occupational safety agency.
OSHA or the Huntley School District's insurance carrier or even District 158's risk manager, if indeed the district has one, might provide some on-site training for whoever should have made certain that the electrical cords were safe.
I wonder if the bus driver has an attorney yet. Goodness knows I am not a lawyer, but the word “negligent” pops into my head for some reason.
And I wonder if any or all of the defective GFI breakers in District 158 that get replaced were tossed away. It seems so strange that a whole group of GFI breakers would all of a sudden start malfunctioning at the same time.
Might they be kept as evidence to try to prove it wasn't the school district's fault?
If the electrical hook-ups to the buses in Huntley were similar to the ones I've been told about in the Woodstock school district, perhaps this injury could have been avoided.
I wonder if any of the District 158 workers warned management of the hazardous work condition.
I wonder if any record exists of that warning.
Surely no emails about the problem have been deleted.
To make sure the underpowered 190D started after cold nights in our detached garage, we plugged an electric cord running from the block into an extension cord.
During really cold days, I'd run an extension cord out from my ground floor office to the car, which was parked with the other elected officials' cars behind the old courthouse on the Woodstock Square.
The delinquent personal property collection operation was located in the basement's southwest corner right in front of the car's parking space.
Marge Rom once did an expose in her Crystal Lake News about how I was stealing electricity from the courthouse.
Picture and all.
This is an overly long way of relating that I know that diesels have to be kept warm in order to start on cold days.
Even Metra now plugs in its diesel engines, rather than running them all night as they did when I lived within sight of the old police and fire station and, hence, within earshot of the engines parked all night on the main line sidings.
A District 158 bus driver was apparently seriously injured some days ago while making a similar effort to keep a bus engine block warm.
Information I have received indicates that the electric shock was bad enough to turn the bus driver's hand black.The event happened in the District 158 bus yard right next to the administration building.
Each bus driver hooks up to an electrical connection so the diesel engine in his or her bus will start in the morning.
Normally there is a circuit breaker that would sense, trip and shut off when a dangerous voltage condition is detected. You have something similar in your bathroom and kitchen if you have a newer home or a re-wired one.
Of course it really helps if the circuit breaker, which I'm told is known as a “GFI” breaker, doesn't malfunction.
Details are sketchy.
Superintendent John Burkey hasn't informed the Board of Education about the accident, even though the bus driver is apparently still in the hospital.
Many days after the accident.
There's a rumor that a whole lot of installed, but malfunctioning GFI circuit breakers were being replaced on Tuesday night.
October 10, 2007, someone wrote under a Northwest Herald story that Glenn Stewart, District 158's Chief Operating Officer, was a mechanical engineer and Doug Renkosik, who is in charge of Building and Grounds, was a civil engineer.
Even if they aren't professionally so trained, it would seem just about anyone would think that having bus drivers pick up live electrical outlets that have been on the ground in wet conditions could be a bit dangerous.
Maybe OSHA should or will weigh in on the issue.
I wonder if anyone has notified that federal occupational safety agency.
OSHA or the Huntley School District's insurance carrier or even District 158's risk manager, if indeed the district has one, might provide some on-site training for whoever should have made certain that the electrical cords were safe.
I wonder if the bus driver has an attorney yet. Goodness knows I am not a lawyer, but the word “negligent” pops into my head for some reason.
And I wonder if any or all of the defective GFI breakers in District 158 that get replaced were tossed away. It seems so strange that a whole group of GFI breakers would all of a sudden start malfunctioning at the same time.
Might they be kept as evidence to try to prove it wasn't the school district's fault?
If the electrical hook-ups to the buses in Huntley were similar to the ones I've been told about in the Woodstock school district, perhaps this injury could have been avoided.
I wonder if any of the District 158 workers warned management of the hazardous work condition.
I wonder if any record exists of that warning.
Surely no emails about the problem have been deleted.
Labels: Crystal Lake News, Diesel, Glenn Stewart, Huntley School District 158, John Burkey, Marge Rom, McHenry County Treasurer, OSHA, School Bus
