Introduction

Seat Fitting/Removal Safety Guidance

There are two significant problems concerning the removal / refitting seats in Bluey.
These problems and how to avoid them are described below.

It is strongly recommended that the action shown in italics below is carried out by all drivers each time they take custody of the bus.

Problem 1

If a seat is not correctly installed it can detach from the floor and, with its belted-in passenger, become a dangerous missile. This is therefore a critical safety concern.

The problem is caused by the seat locking plunger not being fully located. To ensure that this plunger is properly engaged, the following sequence is necessary:

fit the feet on the seat locating fixtures into the tracking and slide the seat
backwards or forwards to align it.
rotate the black “capstan” wheels to allow the cross-bars to drop into the
slots in the plungers
holding the seat by its legs, apply back and forth pressure until the cross-bars fully engage (i.e. drop completely into the slots in the plungers). That they have properly engaged can be confirmed by ensuring that the top of the cross bar is flush with the top of the plunger slot. As this is not always obvious, a confirmatory check can be made by looking beneath the capstan wheels. The underside of the wheel spigot should be flat against the locating fixture with none of the steel sleeve visible. If any of this sleeve can be seen then the seat is not correctly fitted and is potentially very dangerous
finally, turn the wheel to tighten.

Problem 2

It is possible to cause a black “capstan” wheel to seize firmly in the unscrewed position by simply unscrewing it too far. A characteristic of this problem is that whilst relatively little torque is required to cause the wheel to seize, it can be extremely difficult to “un-seize” it by hand; mechanical assistance is often required(e.g. a wrench). It is also difficult to determine whether a wheel is stuck in the fully up or fully down position. This often causes the assumption that the wheel is stuck down and so even more torque is applied to unscrew it…which simply worsens the situation.

SO, WHEN REMOVING A SEAT FROM THE BUS, UNSCREW THE BLACK WHEELS ONLY FAR ENOUGH TO LOOSEN THEM AND ENABLE THE CROSS BARS TO BE LIFTED FROM THEIR SLOTS.
IF YOU FIND A WHEEL STUCK, IT IS PROBABLY STUCK “OPEN”

ATTENTION

IN CASE OF AN INCIDENT INVOLVING INCORRECT FITTING OF A SEAT, THE DRIVER AT THE TIME WOULD BE LIABLE