Laidlaw/First Student Sued Over "unsafe and polluting buses"

Laidlaw Transit, Inc., now a part of First Student, is being sued in San Francisco charging that violated their contract with the San Francisco Unified School District by operating buses that were unsafe and pollution-heavy.

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The suit was filed by two former mechanics at Laidlaw and joined by the Environmental Law Foundation.

The mechanics, William Padilla and Manuel Contreras, testified last year in another lawsuit that Laidlaw has had poor maintenance practices for years, and that it falsified repair records, kept unsafe buses in service, faked pollution tests and did not meet the District's stringent standards for emissions and pollution control equipment on the school buses. Safety claims include faulty brakes, leaking fuel and cracked tailpipes.