with a full load of CedarBridge Academy students on Wednesday afternoon.

Public Transportation Board (PTB) director Herman Basden revealed that the bus had been outfitted with new linings on May 3, 1999.

"And we would expect these linings to easily last for two years,'' he said.

The bus also passed a brakes test last night, leaving mechanics concerned as to what really happened.

Herbert Russell, who has been a bus driver for 14 years, described a harrowing experience where the bus brakes failed as he was carrying a full load of CedarBridge students, down Tee Street in Devonshire about 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday.

"I was pumping it and pumping it but there was just nothing there at all,'' he said.

Quick thinking on the part of Mr. Russell to immediately make a left turn onto South Shore Road when he hit the junction, averted a possible tragedy.

The driver of a car travelling east on South Shore Road with four people, had to swerve quickly to avoid a head-on collision with the runaway bus.

The accident saw no injuries to drivers, passengers nor the vehicles.

Yesterday, Mr. Basden said the bus had been checked and the brakes were found to be operating at 50 percent.

"The public should know that we have a brake-testing machine made especially for buses,'' he said. "We had that bus tested and noticed that the brakes were not 100 percent, they were 50 percent. But that should have been enough to stop the bus.'' "We are now trying to find out what happened from the time the driver took the bus to the time the accident occurred,'' Mr. Basden continued. "The driver is not at work today and so tomorrow we will get a report from him.

"We are not at all countering what Mr. Russell said, but we have to get to the bottom of this and find out what the problem was.'' As a precautionary measure, Mr. Basden has taken all buses in the 1985 series out of operation for brake testing.

"All the 85 series will be brought in and checked because the public must be assured that we are not putting any faulty buses out on the road,'' he insisted.

The move means that the PTB 106-fleet will be down by nine buses.

Mr. Basden pointed out that all buses are checked regularly, most he said were done quarterly, "and certainly all every six months''.

He added that before drivers go out on their route they drive around the yard and check their brakes.

"They do that every day and can certainly hand back over a bus with brakes they are not happy with,'' Mr. Basden said.

"But I would like to say that I am glad that no one was hurt in the accident and that the driver took quick evasive action.''