An Alaska Airlines jet lands at Newark Liberty International Airport. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor)
The Federal Aviation Administration reported no travel delays due to staffing levels at U.S. air traffic control facilities Wednesday, following a day of some delays related to above-average absences at a handful of facilities.
An FAA operational plan posted about noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, the eighth day of the federal government shutdown, showed no facilities impacted by “staffing triggers.” A day earlier, the same memo showed staffing levels affected operations at major hub airports in Phoenix and Denver, as well as a smaller airport in Burbank, California.
Air traffic controllers are essential to the functioning of the nation’s air transportation system and must continue to work during a shutdown, though they are not paid while it is ongoing.
The group has not yet missed a paycheck during the current lapse in federal funding. The first impact most federal employees will see on their pay will be Friday, when electronic funding transfers are made for the pay period from Sept. 24 to Oct. 7.
Because Congress has not appropriated money beyond Sept. 30, they would only receive a partial paycheck. Future paychecks would not be allocated until the government reopens.
‘How am I going to pay my mortgage?’
The possibility of working without pay is stressful for air traffic controllers, possibly leading to worsening performance or motivating some to call in sick to work on-demand jobs such as driving for ridesharing services, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a Monday press conference in Newark, New Jersey.
“Now what they think about as they’re patrolling our airspace is, ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I make my car payment? I have a couple kids at home, how do I put food on the table? I’m working six days a week, do I have to take a second job and drive Uber?’” Duffy said.
Duffy said there was a slight uptick in controllers calling in sick, but that it had not been widespread.
Extensive “sick-outs” among air traffic controllers were a major factor in ending the last partial government shutdown, which occurred during President Donald Trump’s first presidency in 2018.
“Absenteeism as a concern: We’ve had a few airports and we’re tracking it,” Duffy responded to a reporter who asked about the issue. “We don’t have one facility that has had long-term issues with sick leave, but that is concerning to me. And if someone has to take sick leave to drive Uber to make the difference … of course that’s concerning for us.”
Union chief calls for reopening government
Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said on a CBS Evening News interview Tuesday the union is not coordinating absenteeism and is encouraging members to stay on the job during the shutdown. Air traffic controllers are prohibited by law from striking or taking other actions to disrupt the air transportation system.
Daniels also called on Congress to reopen the government as soon as possible to ease the strain on the workforce.
“There is no concerted effort for air traffic controllers to go in and somehow impede this system,” Daniels said. “But what it shouldn’t be is waiting to see how long air traffic controllers can last.”
Introduced last month, the bipartisan Brake for Kids Act hopes to create a public service announcement on the dangers of illegally passing a stopped school bus.
Introduced on Sept. 16 by Sens. Todd Young of Indiana and Gary Peters of Michigan, it directs the “Secretary of Transportation to carry out a national public safety messaging campaign relating to the dangers of illegal passing of stopped school buses, and for other purposes.”
The PSA campaign would need to be released and distributed no later than one year after the enactment. It would include television advertisements on national broadcasts as well as radio, social media and other messaging.
Both senators have been involved in trying to prevent illegal school bus crossings, introducing the Stop for School Buses Act in 2019 and 2021.
“Every school year, far too many illegal school bus passings occur, which puts the lives of students at risk. Our bill will raise awareness about the dangers of passing a stopped school bus to help ensure that our kids make it to and from school safely,” said Young in a press release.
U.S. Reps. Rudy Yakym, Pete Stauber, Seth Moulton and Julia Brownley introduced companion legislation in the House.
“Parents need to know their kids are safe taking the bus to and from school,” Peters said in a release. “That’s why I’m proud to help lead this bipartisan, commonsense legislation to raise awareness of the dangers of illegally passing school buses and promote best practices for making our communities safer.”
Meanwhile, the National School Transportation Association released a statement applauding the introduction of the legislation. “The Brake for Kids Act is an essential step to help protect students and alleviate preventable tragedies,” said Patrick Dean, NSTA president. “Illegal school bus passings are a national crisis, and this legislation provides a platform for student transportation to raise awareness, change behavior, and prevent these all-too-frequent incidents.”
NSTA cited the 2025 National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services survey released this summer, noting that more than 114,000 school bus drivers across the U.S. reported 67,258 violations in a single day. While lower than in years past, NASDPTS extrapolated that motorists nationwide still illegally pass school buses tens of millions of times during the school year.
“NSTA believes that a nationwide safety campaign will close knowledge gaps, strengthen driver education, and save lives,” the press release adds.
Analysis on upcoming TSD Conference education, National Association for Pupil Transportation election results, the Federal Brake for Kids Act and the Federal Communications Commission revoking E-Rate eligibility of school bus Wi-Fi.
Jeff Cassell, president of the School Bus Safety Company, discusses the need for safety leadership training, removing risk and reducing accidents in student transportation.
Glenna Wright-Gallo, vice president of policy at neurotechnology software company Everway, has worked at the state government level and served as the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services. At the TSD Conference this November, she brings her perspective as a person with a disability on educating and empowering individuals with disabilities.
Tesla offers two different manual rear door release designs in the Model Y.
Apparently, some of these vehicles lack a manual rear door release entirely.
Owners are adding ropes to the rear door cables for quick emergency use.
Concerns over Tesla’s electronic door handles have intensified after several recent fatalities were linked to situations where occupants couldn’t escape following a crash or fire. The incidents have not only landed Tesla in hot water with safety authorities, but have also sparked broader conversations within the auto industry about safety design and emergency accessibility.
Many owners are now asking themselves what they can do to ensure their vehicles are ready should the unthinkable happen.
Late last week, a Reddit user sparked discussion by asking how to rescue children from the rear of a Model Y in the event of a collision and fire.
“Me and my wife have a Juniper and with a baby on the way it got me thinking,” wrote a user on Reddit.
“You get into a crash. High voltage battery catches fire, inside is filling up with smoke, 12v battery dies. You use the manual release on the driver’s door to open the door and now you can get out. But how do you get your child/baby out of the backseat/childseat on the passenger side? 3 other doors are locked. No chance you’re reaching the manual release on that door from the driver’s seat,” they added.
To Tesla’s credit, the Model Y includes an easily accessible manual release for the front doors, located just ahead of the window controls. This means front-seat occupants can exit quickly, even if the electronic system fails. The same can’t be said for those in the back seats.
Hidden Escape Points
For whatever reason, the manual release at the rear of the 2020-2024 Model Y is much more difficult to access. To pull it, occupants need to remove the rubber mat at the bottom of the door pocket, press on a red tab to remove a plastic access door, and then pull the mechanical release cable forward. For a child, particularly in a panicked situation, access will be challenging.
Tesla redesigned the rear door’s manual release for the Model Y Juniper, although a plastic release cover still needs to be removed before accessing the release cable.
DIY Safety Mods
Some Model Y owners, inspired by the Reddit thread, have taken matters into their own hands. A few have attached small straps to the rear release cable so it’s easy to spot and pull, while others suggest connecting a rope that extends toward the front of the cabin, giving the driver a way to open the rear doors quickly in an emergency.
That said, these homemade solutions don’t help everyone. Tesla’s owner’s manual for the 2020-2024 Model Y reveals that “not all Model Y vehicles are equipped with a manual release for the rear doors.”
So, if the rear doors can’t be opened from the inside, nor from the outside after a crash and/or fire, that means the only way to free passengers in the rear will be to drag them out from the front seats, or to bust out the rear windows.
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The state’s prison population keeps growing — as does the share of older prisoners who have increasingly complex health care needs.
Increased use of compassionate release could help ease costs and crowding with minimal risks to public safety, prisoner advocates and legal experts say.
Wisconsin courts approved just 53, or 11%, of 489 compassionate release petitions received between January 2019 and June 2025.
California offers a different model for sick and dying prisoners, including by processing compassionate release applications more quickly, the result of a legislative overhaul.
It’s hard to find hope in a terminal illness. But for Darnell Price, the spread of a cancerous tumor opened the door for a new life. It was a chance to spend his remaining days outside of prison.
Two Wisconsin Department of Corrections doctors in 2023 projected Price would die within a year — one of several criteria by which prisoners may seek a shortened sentence due to an “extraordinary health condition,” a form of compassionate release.
That was only the first step. A Corrections committee next had to vet his application. Its approval would send Price’s application to the court that convicted him for charges related to a 2015 bank robbery.
Victims of the crime did not oppose an early release, and a judge granted Price’s petition. That allowed him to walk free in August 2023 after an eight-year stint behind bars.
Price beat the odds in multiple ways. He’s still alive in his native Milwaukee and has authored a memoir about his journey. That his application succeeded is nearly as remarkable as his survival.
Darnell Price poses for a portrait outside of his apartment building, Oct. 1, 2025, in Milwaukee. Price was granted compassionate release from prison in August 2023 after eight years behind bars due to his stage four cancer diagnosis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Wisconsin grants few applicants compassionate release, leaving many severely ill inmates in short-staffed prisons that often struggle to meet health care needs.
Wisconsin courts approved just 53, or 11%, of 489 compassionate release petitions they received between January 2019 and June 2025 — about eight petitions a year, Corrections data show. Courts approved just five of 63 petitions filed in all of 2024.
That’s as the state’s adult prison population has swelled past 23,500, eclipsing the system’s built capacity. A growing share of those prisoners — 1 in 10 — are 60 or older with increasingly intense health care needs.
Increased use of compassionate release could help ease costs and crowding with minimal risks to public safety, prisoner advocates and legal experts say, but it remains off limits to a significant share of the prison population in Wisconsin and elsewhere, including those posing little threat to the public.
“The door is closed to so many people right at the very beginning,” said Mary Price, senior counsel for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a nonprofit advocate for criminal justice reform.
“There’s lots of good arguments why they ought to be released: They’re the most expensive people to incarcerate and the least likely to reoffend.”
Wisconsin’s aging prison population
Wisconsin’s struggle to care for its graying prison population has long drawn concern.
By 2014, Corrections counted more than 900 inmates over the age of 60, or about 4% of the overall population. Citing that number, then-department medical director James Greer wondered in a WPR interview:
“What’s that 900 (inmates) over 60 going to look like? It’s going to (be) 1,100? Is it going to be 1,200 in five years? And if so, how are (we) going to manage those in a correctional setting and keep them safe?”
Those projections undershot the trend. By the end of 2019, state prisons held more than 1,600 people older than 60. That number stood at 2,165 by the end of last year, nearly 10% of the population.
The state’s truth-in-sentencing law, which took effect in 2000, has helped drive that trend. It virtually eliminated parole for newly convicted offenders.
Darnell Price, right, pitches his memoir during a Home to Stay resource fair for people reentering society after incarceration, Oct. 1, 2025, at Community Warehouse in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
“Old law” prisoners sentenced before the change were eligible for release after serving 25% of their time. They were mandatorily released after serving two-thirds of their time.
Truth-in-sentencing required prisoners to serve 100% of their sentences plus post-release “extended supervision” of at least 25% of the original sentence. Parole remains available only to those sentenced before 2000.
The overhaul increased lockup time by nearly two years on average, said Michael O’Hear, a Marquette University Law School professor and expert on criminal punishment. That likely contributed to the aging trend. Lengthened post-release supervision played an even bigger role, if indirectly.
“The longer a person serves on supervision, the greater the likelihood of revocation and return to prison,” O’Hear said.
Separately, harsher sentencing for drunken driving also sent more people to prison.
Older prisoners need more health care
As prisoners age, they develop more complicated medical needs. Research is finding that the conditions of incarceration — overcrowding, lack of quality health care and psychological stress — accelerate those needs. Such conditions can shorten life expectancy by up to two years for every year behind bars, one study in New York state found.
“In Wisconsin overcrowding is a huge issue. Assigning more people to a room than they’re supposed to, which, of course, affects your sleep,” said Farah Kaiksow, associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who has researched aging and care in prison.
The state has recognized the growing needs of older prisoners. In 2023, for instance, it opened a $7 million addition to the minimum-security Oakhill Correctional Institution that includes dozens of assisted living beds.
“Patients are helped with daily living tasks such as eating, dressing, hygiene, mobility, etc. Patients may be admitted for temporary rehab stays after injury or illness or longer-term stays due to age and frailty,” Corrections spokesperson Beth Hardtke said.
Hardtke also cited hospice programs at Dodge, Taycheedah and Oshkosh prisons.
But the department has struggled to recruit and retain competent medical staff. A Wisconsin Watch/New York Times investigation last year found nearly a third of the 60 prison staff physicians employed over a decade faced previous censure by a state medical board for an error or breach of ethics. Many faced lawsuits from inmates accusing them of serious errors that caused suffering or death.
That included a doctor whom Darnell Price sued for failing to order a biopsy on his growing tumor. She had surrendered her medical license in California after pleading guilty to a drug possession charge and no contest to a charge of prescription forgery.
Meanwhile, two Waupun Correctional Institution nurses are facing felony charges relating to deaths of two prisoners in their custody. One prisoner, 62-year-old Donald Maier, died in February 2024 from malnutrition and dehydration.
Compassionate release seen as cost saver
Advocates say boosting compassionate release could save taxpayer money in a state that spends more than its neighbors on incarceration. Health care tends to cost more for older prisoners.
Wisconsin lawmakers in the state’s most recent budget assumed that per prisoner health care costs will increase to $6,554 by 2026-27 — a fraction of the roughly $50,000 officials say it costs to incarcerate one person in Wisconsin.
The corrections department did not provide information breaking down health care costs by age. But a study of North Carolina’s prison system found that it spent about four times as much on health care for prisoners older than 50 compared to others. A 2012 ACLU report found it cost twice as much to incarcerate older prisoners nationally.
Most states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have some version of compassionate release, though they vary wildly.
Wisconsin offers two main avenues: one based on medical condition and the other based on age and time served. Over the last seven years, Wisconsin has been more likely to grant petitions for early release based on medical reasons.
Darnell Price, right, is handed a token celebrating his eight months in recovery during a Home to Stay resource fair for people reentering society after incarceration, Oct. 1, 2025, at Community Warehouse in Milwaukee. “In treatment, I started feeling better and better until finally, the lights started coming back,” Price says. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
State law bars compassionate release for old law prisoners convicted before 2000 — about 1,600 people today. Parole is their only option for early release, and the state parole commission has been releasing fewer people on parole in recent years.
That leaves out people like Carmen Cooper, 80, a wheelchair-bound inmate at Fox Lake Correctional Institution who struggles to breathe. He lives with Parkinson’s disease, recurrent cancer and other ongoing pain and says he doesn’t always receive proper medication.
Convicted of murder and attempted murder in 1993, he is not eligible for parole for another 12 years. He has submitted two compassionate release applications with doctors’ affidavits, but the timing and nature of his convictions ban him from such relief; state law categorically excludes people convicted of Class A or Class B felonies, the most serious types of crime.
Cooper has little hope of dying outside of prison.
His daughters Qumine Hunter and Carmen Cooper say the incarceration has left a wide gap. He has missed deaths of close family members and births of grandchildren and great-grandchildren he has not met. The sisters never stop looking for ways to bring him home.
“If we got five years, 10 years, two years, whatever years we got left with him, we want all of them,” Hunter said.
Renagh O’Leary, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, represents people in compassionate release hearings. She said several elements of the state’s process limit access, including that petitions first go to a Department of Corrections committee, which must include a social worker and can include health care representatives.
Committee members might ask for a person’s plan for housing or to explain minor infractions from time in prison. The petition advances to a judge only if the committee unanimously approves.
Sending petitions directly to the sentencing court would be fairer, O’Leary said. Those and other major changes to the process would require legislative action.
“We’re talking about how long someone should serve in prison,” she added, “and I think those questions are best answered in a public courtroom, in a transparent process by a judge in the county that imposed the original prison sentence.”
The courtroom is where crime victims can weigh in. Their opinions depend on individual circumstances, said Amy Brown, the longtime director of victim services at the Dane County District Attorney’s Office.
“Victims don’t all fall into one category, just like offenders don’t all fall into one category,” she said.
Another wrinkle in Wisconsin’s compassionate release system: Doctors must attest to prisoners having less than six to 12 months to live. Some doctors feel uncomfortable making such a prediction.
“It’s really hard for a doctor to say, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be dead in six months,’” said Michele DiTomas, hospice medical director for the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, California. “You just don’t know. Some people will be dead in three months, some people will go on for 18 months.”
California a compassionate release model
California offers a different model for sick and dying prisoners.
The 17-bed hospice unit DiTomas runs, the first of its kind in the U.S., offers dying men as much comfort as can be found within a prison: medications that ease pain, visits from family members, time outdoors and attention from other incarcerated men who have been trained to provide hospice care. That hasn’t stopped DiTomas from working to get people approved for compassionate release so they can finish their lives at home.
California’s compassionate release process used to require a string of signatures — from the corrections secretary, the parole board, the governor and the original sentencing court — and often took longer than a person had left to live, she said. Similar barriers exist in many states.
The state a decade ago approved about 10 applications on average each year, DiTomas said, with approvals taking four to six months. A legislative overhaul streamlined the process. The state now approves about 100 compassionate release applications a year, taking as little as four weeks each, DiTomas said.
The changes resulted from leaders’ collaboration after recognizing that the previous system wasn’t working.
“We can give people their humanity and preserve public safety,” DiTomas said. “It’s not necessarily one or the other.”
Housing shortage complicates release
Price initially lacked a place to stay while applying for compassionate release in 2023. It was his job to fix that or risk dooming his application.
“They can deny you for not having a solid plan for housing, but it’s not something they help you with,” he said.
He found a room in a transitional housing unit in Milwaukee through a faith-based organization. Had he required more intensive care, a nursing home may be a better option. But many nursing homes don’t accept someone fresh out of prison — a challenge described in a 2020 Legislative Audit Bureau report.
That’s a problem nationwide, said Price, the Families Against Mandatory Minimums attorney. As more than 60,000 people aged 50 or older leave prison each year, housing demand continues to outpace supply. Her organization is creating a clearinghouse to help match prisoners who qualify for compassionate release with pro bono lawyers to help them find beds.
O’Leary said that illustrates how expanding compassionate release in Wisconsin would require more post-prison housing options.
Life on the outside
Price now lives in a modest efficiency apartment on Milwaukee’s north side. It doesn’t have much, he said, but it has everything he needs, including a laptop and smart TV to watch Packers highlights. On his wall hangs a framed version of the Wisconsin Watch/New York Times story that detailed his struggle to receive medical care in prison — a gift from his attorneys. The tumors still lurk in his body, though for now they do not seem to be growing.
Price has faced some of his toughest challenges since leaving prison.
The opioids doctors prescribed to ease his pain triggered a past cocaine addiction, Price said, and drug use cost him the first place he stayed.
But Price checked into a treatment facility in February 2024. He managed to stay sober in 24-hour increments. The days eventually turned into weeks.
“At that time I didn’t have a plan. But in treatment, I started feeling better and better until finally, the lights started coming back,” he said. “Then there came a point that I even wanted to go back to that life.”
Darnell Price closes the door of his apartment, Oct. 1, 2025, in Milwaukee. Finding and maintaining housing were among the challenges he faced upon being released from prison. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Kyesha Felts, with whom Price shares a daughter, is also taking life one day at a time, enjoying the time she gets to spend with the man she has loved for 30 years.
“I love it,” she said of Price being home. “I’m enjoying every minute of it. Because tomorrow’s promised to nobody.”
She said she admires his intelligence, the way he treats people and his strength and resilience.
Price is now eight months sober, and he’s proud of the memoir he published, “The Ultimate Betrayal,” a chronicle of addiction, incarceration and redemption. He tells his story around the community. He doesn’t hold anything back, he said, because it’s all part of his testimony.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
According to a recall notice published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on September 30, the 2025 EX90 has a tailgate defect that could pose a safety risk.
Volvo reports that the spindle nut can detach from the aluminum tube while the tailgate is open. If the power-operated tailgate drive unit separates, the spindle may release unexpectedly, causing the tailgate to slam shut without warning.
Tracing The Fault
Volvo says the issue has been caused by the mishandling of parts at a supplier, where ‘Not OK’ parts were sorted with ‘OK parts.’ In total, 1,119 vehicles are impacted by the recall, all of which were manufactured between April 22, 2024, and February 17, 2025.
The company first noticed a potential problem in late March after receiving a report of a tailgate spindle separation. A second incident occurred a month later during internal testing, which prompted a deeper investigation into the cause.
What Happens Next?
Owners of impacted models will be alerted to the recall from November 18. Dealerships have been instructed to replace both the power-operated tailgate drive units free of charge.
To prevent a repeat of the problem, Volvo says its supplier has now automated the quality-control process, using a robot to place rejected parts into a locked container rather than letting them mix with approved ones.
Just weeks earlier, Volvo confirmed that the 2026 EX90 will adopt a new 800-volt electrical system capable of 350 kW charging, a significant jump from the previous model’s 250 kW limit. The update also promises better performance and greater efficiency, hinting at a more refined experience for drivers once these teething troubles are behind it.
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A Manitowoc County dairy farmer can’t find an attorney and has no idea where her husband is after he was among 24 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Manitowoc County on Sept. 25.
Wisconsin immigration attorneys said they were surprised to hear that, unlike during other recent federal government shutdowns, immigration court hearings for clients not in ICE detention would continue as planned.
Only about a third of immigrants in Wisconsin with upcoming hearings in federal immigration court have legal representation.
A Manitowoc County dairy worker arrived for her shift early on a Thursday morning in late September and waited for a message from her husband. It’s their routine, she said: rise early, commute to jobs at separate dairies and check in by phone.
“But when I called him, he didn’t answer,” she said in Spanish. “And so I was calling and calling and I said, ‘something happened, because he’s not answering – that’s not normal.’”
Her husband, Abraham Maldonado Almanza, was among the 24 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Manitowoc County on Sept. 25. As far as she knows, officers picked Maldonado Almanza up in the Walmart parking lot where dairy workers gather to carpool hours before sunrise. Within a matter of days, he had — at least from her perspective — effectively vanished, carried away at breakneck speed by the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
The pace of enforcement operations, lack of transparency and sudden shifts in policy have disoriented both those targeted in the crackdown and immigration attorneys already managing overwhelming caseloads.
A Department of Homeland Security press release tied the arrests to a joint operation with the FBI, IRS and other federal law enforcement agencies targeting an alleged human and drug trafficking ring. Neither DHS nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin responded to inquiries about whether the investigation has resulted in criminal charges against any of those arrested last month, nor did federal district court dockets point to criminal charges resulting from the investigation as of Friday.
Over the following days, the dairy worker says she made her way through a list of immigration attorneys’ phone numbers, none of whom agreed to take her husband’s case. She attributed the reluctance to a preexisting removal order on her husband’s record, which can speed the deportation process. But without a reliable source of information, she was left relying on hearsay to keep track of Abraham’s case.
Dairy workers were among those arrested during a Sept. 25, 2025, federal immigration raid in Manitowoc, Wis. Here, a worker is shown cleaning the milking barn at a farm in Wisconsin on June 11, 2024. (Ben Brewer for Wisconsin Watch)
As the federal government entered a shutdown on Wednesday, several Wisconsin immigration attorneys said they were surprised to hear that, unlike during other shutdowns in recent memory, immigration court hearings for clients not in ICE detention would continue as planned.
Attorneys had not expected the shutdown to slow down the cases of immigrants in detention, but the speed of operations has still caught some off guard. Some of those arrested in Manitowoc County last month were already out of the country days before Congress missed its funding deadline, according to Aissa Olivarez, an attorney with the Community Immigration Law Center in Madison.
“Historically, people are taken to (the Dodge County Jail) and we’re able to at least do an intake and speak with them before anything else happens,” Olivarez said. “But it seems like in this operation, they knew who they were looking for, or exactly what they were going to do. … They did this really, really fast.”
As of Friday, three of the six arrestees named in a DHS press release about the Manitowoc County operation were still in the Dodge County Jail, according to ICE’s detainee locator tool.
Maldonado Almanza was not among them, though his name and photograph appeared in the press release, which also claimed he had a prior conviction for identity theft.
Wisconsin circuit court records yield no matching criminal record, nor do trial court records in Iowa, where his wife says they lived after emigrating from Mexico and before moving to Wisconsin. Iowa court records do, however, reflect that Maldonado Almanza was fined for driving without insurance in 2009.
Some men arrested in Manitowoc County on Sept. 25, 2025, had already left country within days, says Aissa Olivarez, an attorney with the Community Immigration Law Center. She is shown on a commuter train on Oct. 24, 2018 — returning to Madison, Wis., from the Chicago Immigration Court, the designated court for people held in immigration detention in Wisconsin. (Natalie Yahr / Wisconsin Watch)
The dairy worker said her husband had previously received a deportation order in an immigration court case that began while the couple was living in Iowa. That detail matches Olivarez’s understanding of the Manitowoc operation. “It does seem like there were people who have been ordered deported before,” she said. In those cases, “without a quick stay of removal or motion to reopen, the government executes that removal order right away.”
“Because there is such a low capacity (of attorneys) in the state in general, when people already have removal orders, we can’t work fast enough to stop it,” she added.
Maldonado Almanza’s whereabouts remained unclear as of Friday.
Milwaukee immigration attorney John Sesini says his firm took the case of another man picked up in the Manitowoc operation only to discover he had been deported to Mexico within four days of his arrest. The man had no criminal record, Sesini said, and it remains unclear whether he had a prior deportation order. If not, it may still be possible to challenge the deportation in court.
Only about a third of immigrants in Wisconsin with upcoming hearings in federal immigration court have legal representation. Unlike courts operated by the federal judiciary, immigration courts – part of the U.S. Department of Justice – do not provide free representation. Instead, immigrants must pay out of pocket, rely on the few free and low-cost legal services organizations like Olivarez’s legal center or face the courts alone. Those able to find attorneys are vastly more likely to avoid deportation than those who attempt to represent themselves.
For some immigrants facing court dates in the coming weeks, a typical government shutdown could have provided breathing room. In past shutdowns, the DOJ has typically deemed only the cases of immigrants in detention “essential” enough to move forward. The shutdown from late December 2018 to mid-January 2019, for instance, forced the cancellation of at least 80,000 hearings nationwide, according to immigration court records analyzed by the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
Attorney Aissa Olivarez works on a commuter train on Oct. 24, 2018, while traveling between Madison, Wis., and the Chicago Immigration Court. (Natalie Yahr / Wisconsin Watch)
A Wisconsin Watch analysis of federal immigration court data suggests that as of August, almost 1,000 immigrants with Wisconsin addresses had hearings scheduled for October. So far, the DOJ has not called off those hearings en masse, though the agency has also not clarified whether immigration courts will continue holding hearings of immigrants who are not detained during a prolonged shutdown.
But in a press release issued on Wednesday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin underscored that the shutdown will not slow ICE. “The deportations will continue,” she wrote.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
MACON, Georgia — IMMI, the trusted global leader in school bus seating, joined Blue Bird Corp. to celebrate the grand opening of its manufacturing facility in Macon, Georgia. IMMI’s 75,000 square-foot plant will support school bus maker Blue Bird after the company announced to equip select model buses with industry-first safety upgrades, including seats with three-point seat belts as standard protection for all student passengers and a steering wheel deployed air bag to safeguard school bus drivers.
“Today, not only do we celebrate safety leadership alongside our partner Blue Bird, we also are thrilled to add 80 good-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs to middle Georgia,” announced Larry Gray, CEO of IMMI. “We are also here to recognize Blue Bird’s continued commitment to advancing school bus safety by being the first school bus manufacturer to make lap-shoulder belts standard on their buses and provide frontal airbags to protect school bus drivers in communities across the United States,” added Norm Gould III, school bus president and IMMI CFO.
IMMI’s 4Front airbag safety system will also be standard safety equipment on Blue Bird’s Vision- model school buses beginning this month.
“Every day, millions of children travel on our buses to school and back home. They are the most precious cargo in the world,” said John Wyskiel, president and CEO of Blue Bird Corporation. “For nearly 100 years, Blue Bird has led the way in school bus safety. We partnered with IMMI to bring industry-first, standard student and driver safety systems to school districts in North America. We are thrilled that our joint commitment to safety drives investments, manufacturing expansion, and job growth in our home state and beyond.”
Under the brand SafeGuard, IMMI’s Macon facility manufactures state-of-the-art school bus seats, which help to protect millions of children every day. Blue Bird was the first school bus manufacturer to announce in 2024 that lap-shoulder belts would be standard safety equipment on their school bus seats.
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have called for school bus manufacturers to provide lap-shoulder belts for the 25 million plus children who ride on buses every year, and Blue Bird has answered that call,” added Wyskiel.
As demand increases for IMMI SafeGuard’s lap-shoulder belt seats, IMMI expects to add more jobs to its workforce in Macon. The company will post open roles on its career website and encourages qualified candidates to apply.
“Illinois recently passed legislation joining eight other U.S. states mandating lap-shoulder belts on new school buses,” said Gray. “We expect other states to follow suit as they recognize that even on the safest vehicles on the road, which are school buses, seat belts continue to save lives and reduce injuries.”
Press Photo/Caption: IMMI’s 75,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Macon, Georgia produces industry-leading school bus seats with three-point seat belts for Georgia-based school bus maker Blue Bird Corporation. Blue Bird is the first school bus manufacturer in the United States to equip select model buses with three-point seat belts as standard protection for all student passengers and a steering wheel deployed air bag to protect school bus drivers. (Image provided by IMMI)
About IMMI
IMMI® is the trusted, global leader of safety solutions, helping to protect millions of lives every day. For almost 60 years, IMMI has led the way in developing, designing, testing and manufacturing innovative safety restraints and systems. IMMI’s safety products are found worldwide on car seats, heavy trucks, school buses, recreational/off road, military, fire/EMS, motor coach, and construction vehicles. Employee-owned, IMMI is headquartered in Westfield, Indiana and operating nine additional global facilities, IMMI is also home to CAPE, the world’s leading state-of-the-art testing facility. For more information, visit https://www.imminet.com.
About Blue Bird Corporation
Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927. Our dedicated team members design, engineer and manufacture school buses with a singular focus on safety, reliability, and durability. School buses carry the most precious cargo in the world — 25 million children twice a day — making them the most trusted mode of student transportation. The company is the proven leader in low- and zero-emission school buses with more than 25,000 propane, natural gas, and electric powered buses sold. Blue Bird is transforming the student transportation industry through cleaner energy solutions. For more information on Blue Bird’s complete product and service portfolio, visit www.blue-bird.com.
An early Faraday Future FF91 prototype caught fire inside its Los Angeles headquarters.
Firefighters battled the blaze for 40 minutes before the damaged building red-tagged.
Faraday claims the battery was not responsible, citing wiring or a 12-volt short.
Faraday Future is back in the news, but not for the reasons it would prefer. Early on the morning of September 28, an early FF91 prototype caught fire in the company’s headquarters. Nobody was hurt, but we can’t say the same for the building, which is now off-limits for workers.
The Los Angeles Fire Department received a call at 4:37 a.m. about the blaze and managed to extinguish it within 40 minutes, says TechCrunch. Sprinklers inside the building helped slow the fire, but not before an explosion blew out part of a wall. Firefighters had to force entry into the building, and once the fire was out, an inspector red-tagged the property.
Early Prototype Up in Smoke
After the fire, the company quickly moved to temper concerns with a public statement. It stressed that the battery pack wasn’t involved and pointed out that the vehicle in question was an old prototype.
Internally referred to as B40, the company said the car is about nine years old and that “its interior materials do not meet the flammability standards of production vehicles. This beta prototype is entirely different from FF 91 production vehicles, and therefore, we believe this incident will not result in any recall of production models.”
The brand will conduct a full investigation, and for now, they think the fire started due to a short circuit in the showroom wiring itself or a loose connection in the vehicle’s 12-volt system.
Not the First Fire
This isn’t the first time Faraday Future has faced a blaze involving one of its test cars. Back in 2022, another prototype reportedly went up in flames, though few details ever emerged about that event other than a set of photos. For a company already fighting for stability, each incident adds to a growing cloud of doubt.
The latest fire comes at an especially volatile time for the embattled company.
Statement on Fire Incident at Faraday Future Satellite Office Building
In the early morning of Sunday, September 28 (PST), a fire occurred at FF’s satellite office building at our U.S. headquarters. The company attaches great importance to this matter and would like to provide…
After the FF91 turned out to be a flop, Faraday Future has been working on plans to federalize and sell a Chinese-made van with a screen on its face. In recent months, it’s come under fire for a controversial crypto-related pivot and for allegedly missing payments for the property where the fire happened. The lease ended at the end of September.
While the company says the fire poses no risk to production vehicles, it’s certainly not going to restore trust or confidence in owners, landlords, and shareholders alike.
Although all can agree that a fatal car crash in Milwaukee on Sept. 16 was a tragedy, there is less consensus on how to prevent similar incidents in the future.
That day Pler Moo, 50, and her two sons, Moo Nay Taw, 21, and Kar Lah Kri Moo, 15, were killed and two other children seriously injured when their car was struck at North 35th and West Vliet streets by another vehicle fleeing police.
Pler Moo, 50, and her two sons, Moo Nay Taw, 21, and Kar Lah Kri Moo, 15, were killed in a crash on Sept. 16. A makeshift memorial was created near the site of the crash. (Video by Jonathan Aguilar/ Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service/ CatchLight Local)
Since the crash, some have called for changes to police pursuit policies, while others blame the crashes on those who flee police.
“It is a very complex issue,” said Ruth Ehrgott, whose pregnant daughter, Erin Mogensen, was killed in 2023 when a reckless driver fleeing police crashed into her car.
“I will always stop anybody that says, ‘Well, you know, the problem is … .’ These problems are too complex for that.”
Ehrgott takes a nuanced approach to reckless driving through the nonprofit she founded in honor of her daughter, Enough is Enough – A Legacy for Erin.
She believes the entire community has a part to play in reducing deaths and injuries from reckless driving.
Ongoing trend
Pieces of a car involved in a fatal crash that killed three lie on the ground at a memorial in the parking lot of Smoky’s near North 35th and West Vliet streets in Milwaukee. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
The crash that occurred Sept. 16 likely would not have happened a decade ago, when the Milwaukee Police Department restricted vehicle pursuits to violent felonies.
In 2017, then-Police Chief Edward Flynn expanded the department’s policy to allow pursuits in cases involving drug dealing and reckless driving.
The following year, police pursuits rose 155% – from 369 instances to 940 – with about two-thirds of the chases initiated because of reckless driving, according to a report from the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission. In 2024, there were 957 police pursuits in Milwaukee, and just under one-third ended in a crash, according to another Fire and Police Commission report.
There have been five deaths caused by crashes during police pursuits in Milwaukee since July. On July 29, El Moctar Sidiya was killed when a man fleeing officers crashed into his car on West Brady Street. On Aug. 23, Hasan Harris died after his car was struck by an individual who was fleeing police on West Center Street.
The increase of pursuit-related deaths in Milwaukee is often cited as evidence of a link between looser pursuit policies and greater traffic risks, said Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina and an expert on police pursuits.
MPD acknowledges the widespread effects of these pursuits.
“Police pursuits present significant challenges due to the physical, emotional and financial impact on officers, the public and fleeing suspects,” an MPD spokesperson told NNS.
Change to pursuit policy
In 2024, there were 957 police pursuits in Milwaukee, and just under one-third ended in a crash, according to the Fire and Police Commission. (Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service file photo)
Alpert said if the goal is to reduce traffic injuries and deaths, pursuits should be limited to cases involving violent crimes.
He also said it is a myth that limiting police chases to violent crimes causes an increase in other offenses, such as drug dealing. He cited a study in Virginia that found more narrow pursuit policies did not lead to higher crime rates.
There were calls to change MPD’s pursuit policy from members of the public during a Fire and Police Commission meeting on Sept. 18.
Kayla Patterson put it bluntly in her public comment.
“Committing crimes and traffic stops should not be death sentences,” she said.
Others weigh in
Mayor Cavalier Johnson, while speaking at a news conference on Sept. 18, addressed reckless driving and high-speed pursuits.
He said that traffic-calming measures had reduced reckless driving in the city, but high-speed chases involving police remain a serious problem.
Johnson said the city is considering different options, including using technology to warn people about pursuits.
But the primary responsibility for stopping chases is on those who flee, Johnson said.
“I believe that one of the most effective things we can do in order to eliminate these chases … is to listen to officer commands to pull the vehicles over and not proceed with the chase,” Johnson said.
Ald. Peter Burgelis, vice chair of the Milwaukee Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee, agrees.
“Criminals fleeing from police contribute to injuries and deaths,” Burgelis said in an email to NNS.
Calling the Sept. 16 crash “particularly devastating,” Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern said police must be involved in the response to reckless driving.
“It is important to keep in mind that reckless driving has injured and killed a number of innocent people in our community, without any police pursuits involved,” Lovern said. “Police cancel pursuits where the public safety concerns indicate that is the appropriate course of action.”
Drea Rodriguez, global program officer at WomenServe, suggested that police get more training, including on ideal routes to take.
In this way, she said, residents can be a part of the solution and “easily share some hot spots to be aware of.”
A spokesperson for MPD said the department is committed to making sure its training, policies and risk mitigation strategies reflect national best practices.
Ehrgott said in addition to proper training for police, there should be strong repercussions for those who flee from police in addition to greater awareness of its dangers.
“These problems are societal,” Ehrgott said. “It’s happening to all of us.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
More federal and legal wrangling over school bus Wi-Fi and emissions regulations, plus bus manufacturing updates. Read the new October issue of School Transportation News magazine and watch our recent webinars.
“I’m thankful I had the job that I had, to do the work that I had, at the time that I did.” Jeremy Stowe, director of transportation for Buncombe County Schools in North Carolina, transports us into the story of when Hurricane Helene hit last September and how student transporters assisted with emergency response and recovery. The dedication of the district’s maintenance team is reflected in the Garage Star award it won this year. Stowe also discusses benefits of vendor partnerships in technology and alternative transportation.
A driverless car operated by Waymo is under scrutiny after it was caught on video illegally passing a stopped school bus that was letting children off in Atlanta, reported WBIR News.
The incident occurred Monday afternoon and was recorded by a woman who witnessed the incident. Georgia state Rep. Clint Crowe said he was shocked after seeing the footage.
“I’m a big fan of new technologies and emerging technologies, and I think driverless cars are going to become more common,” Crowe said. “But we have to think about how they’re going to comply with the law.”
According to the news report, Crowe co-sponsored Addy’s Law in 2024, which was named after 8-year-old Addy Pierce. Pierce was killed in Henry County after being hit while crossing the street to get to her school bus. The law increased penalties for illegally passing a stopped school bus, with fines up to $1,000 and possible jail time.
Crowe emphasized that these laws also apply to autonomous vehicles.
“The majority of our traffic laws come with penalties like fines or driver’s license suspension,” he explained via the article. “These cars don’t have drivers or licenses, so we really have to rethink who is responsible. Who’s in control of the vehicle? Who is the operator?”
Crowe said he believes automobile manufacturers should face stronger consequences when their autonomous vehicles break the law, saying the current $1,000 fine isn’t enough. Other lawmakers agree.
“Driverless cars should be stopped until it can be figured out,” said State Sen. Rick Williams, one of the authors of Addy’s Law. “We should not have this on the road. It’s too dangerous for our children” he said via the article.
Williams said he plans to introduce new legislation that would increase penalties on driverless car companies when their vehicles violate traffic laws. Fortunately, no one was injured during the incident.
Waymo said in a statement via the article that “the trust and safety of the communities we serve is our top priority. We continuously refine our system’s performance to navigate complex scenarios and are looking into this further.”
The Wisconsin State Patrol and the Wisconsin School Bus Association successfully completed Operation Safe Stop Week, a statewide campaign held from Sept. 22 to 26, aimed at improving student safety and raising awareness about school bus laws.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) previously announced the joint effort in a press release, highlighting its focus on public education, increased enforcement around school buses, and efforts to curb dangerous driving behaviors near student pick-up and drop-off zones.
During the week, authorities carried out targeted enforcement at high-risk bus stops, conducted vehicle inspections, and launched public outreach initiatives. The campaign’s primary goal was to reduce illegal passing incidents and ensure that students could travel to and from school without danger.
Wisconsin State Patrol Superintendent Tim Carnahan emphasized the importance of collaboration, stating, “The partnership with the Wisconsin School Bus Association and its drivers is essential in keeping both students and other road users safe. It’s critical that every driver understands and follows the rules of the road, especially around school buses.”
In 2024, over 1,200 citations were issued across Wisconsin to drivers who failed to stop for school buses with flashing red lights. Under state law, all drivers must stop at least 20 feet from a bus when its red lights are flashing, unless traveling on the opposite side of a divided highway. Buses also use amber lights to warn drivers that a stop is approaching.
Leading up to the campaign, the Wisconsin School Bus Association (WSBA) identified high-risk areas for illegal passing. Wisconsin State Patrol officers closely monitored these locations and performed safety checks to ensure bus warning systems were operating properly.
Cherie Hime, executive director of WSBA, noted via the release the ongoing commitment to student safety. “This initiative continues to serve as a vital effort to protect children and promote safe transportation. WSBA members are thankful for the long-standing partnership with the Wisconsin State Patrol on this important educational campaign,” she added.
As of March 2024, stricter penalties under Wisconsin Act 154 are now in effect. Motorists who fail to stop for a school bus face a $676.50 fine and four demerit points on their license.
The Lion Bus electric school buses pulled from service in Quebec two weeks ago have reportedly all returned to the road after repairs were made to faulty HVAC fuses.
The Quebec Ministry of Education had ordered LionC electric school bus models to be taken out of service after a fire in Montreal Sept. 9, leading to school disruptions across the province and a renewed scrutiny of electric school bus safety. Lion360 diesel school buses, which Lion manufactured prior to only producing electric vehicles in 2017, were also affected by the issue. Lion Bus issued an inspection bulletin detailing the four-hour repair.
“We have identified some potential anomalies in a sub-component of the HVAC system that Lion obtains from a third-party supplier,” the bulletin states. “In the interest of safety above all else, we request that Lion bus operators perform the following inspections and modifications: [M]andatory inspection of several low-voltage electrical connections, replacement of certain electrical connectors, replace fan fuses with less powerful ones, adding a fuse to an HVAC control panel circuit. This inspection and modification procedure must be carried out on all Lion360 (diesel) and LionC 3rd generation and earlier buses (Gen3, Gen2 and Gen1).”
Lion Bus, the new name of the former Lion Electric based in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, has become the centerpiece of Canada’s electric school bus transition. The manufacturer has delivered more than 1,200 all-electric buses across North America, with the majority operating in Quebec. But at the same time, the company recently emerged from Canada’s version of bankruptcy protection and was acquired by a Quebec real estate magnate. Per terms of the deal, all warranties outside of Quebec became null and void.
The Sept. 9 fire occurred while the English Montreal School Board bus, operated by contractor Transco, was parked and unoccupied. No injuries resulted. Transport Canada confirmed it was investigating three total reports of LionC fires, the Montreal incident and two earlier fires, with the focus was on the low-voltage heating system. The agency, Canada’s version of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said its investigation has yet to identify a safety defect “due to the extent of fire damage in affected buses.”
Transport Canada recommended fleet owners immediately inspect their LionCs “in accordance with the manufacturer’s inspection bulletin.” For school bus drivers who see any smoke or smell anything burning, Transport Canada advises them to stop the bus, evacuate all passengers and, if safe, turn off the high-voltage and 12-volt power supplies.
CBC reported that three similar fires and a smoke-filled school bus have occurred since last November. It took the Sept. 9 incident for Transport Canada to investigate, according to the article.
But reports from local firefighters indicate the fire did not spread to the lithium-ion battery pack, added nonprofit climate advocate Green Communities Canada.
“It’s important to remember that data consistently shows gas-powered vehicles are six- to eight-times more likely to catch fire than electric vehicles,” added Leif Einarson, communications manager for Green Communities Canada. “One incident should not derail the momentum we’ve built in transitioning to cleaner, safer student transportation.”
Lion Bus said in a statement on Sept. 12 that it was working with Transport Canada to determine the exact cause but confirmed “neither the electric battery nor the propulsion system was involved.”
That same day, Lion said Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec approved its plan to return LionC electric school buses to service.
The English Montreal School Board confirmed in an Instagram post Sept. 20 that Transco received the missing parts needed for its electric buses. Two days later, Sunday, Sept. 22, the school posted that all buses had been repaired, inspected and cleared for operation Monday. In all, 76 school buses were grounded, cancelling 68 routes.
First Student owns Transco in Quebec. But the largest contractor in North America, First Student also operates more Lion ESBs than any fleet, including in the U.S.
“Our maintenance and engineering teams are following the Lion Inspection Bulletin to guide all inspections and replacements. As part of this [Lion] bulletin, we are conducting a multi-step inspection focused on electrical safety and system integrity,” company spokeswoman Brenna Rudisill told School Transportation News. “This includes replacing the HVAC control panel for wiring damage and foreign objects, replacing specific fuses to optimize fan performance, checking electrical panels and starter solenoid connections for proper torque and alignment, and verifying bulkhead terminal tightness.”
Rudisill added First Student technicians replaced any faulty components found and upgraded connectors. The issue had been receiving the parts. She said the contractor advises school districts across Canada and the U.S. to “continue to follow Lion’s inspection bulletin.”
Valérie Tremblay, coordinator for the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance (CESBA), said the inspections brought an unexpected upside.
“The good thing is it pushed school districts, operators and Transport Canada to thoroughly inspect all electric school buses,” she explained.
San Bruno police stopped a Waymo after an illegal U-turn during DUI patrol.
Current California law blocks officers from issuing citations to driverless cars.
New rules in July 2026 will let police ticket autonomous vehicle companies.
When police set up a DUI checkpoint, they’ve got to be ready for just about anything. In between those who may or may not be under the influence, they’ll sometimes find people with warrants or those with illegal items in their car. What they probably never expect is a car with no driver at all. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what they stopped in California last Friday night.
According to the San Bruno PD, officers conducting a grant-funded DUI enforcement operation watched as a white Waymo Jaguar I-Pace made an illegal U-turn near the city’s Caltrain station. When it did, officers pulled the car over and, unsurprisingly, found nobody in the driver’s seat.
An Empty Front Seat
The department leaned into humor on social media, posting, “No driver, no hands, no clue. Our citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot.’” In this case, it’s the hands of law enforcement that are tied.
California law doesn’t currently allow moving violations to be issued to autonomous vehicles, so officers couldn’t write a ticket. That said, officers were able to reach out to Waymo’s operations team to report the glitch. In a perfect world, the staff will be able to update the system to never make another U-turn in that spot.
For now, Waymo escaped without a fine, but the stop highlights an issue we’ve seen before. As driverless cars become more common on public roads, law enforcement needs a way to deal with them when infractions happen.
Tickets Without Drivers
The problem isn’t confined to San Bruno. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city of San Francisco has already seen Waymo vehicles rack up more than $65,000 in fines. At this point, federal regulators are investigating reports just like these with autonomous cars violating traffic laws.
San Bruno officers say their mission hasn’t changed. “Whether it’s drivers, passengers, or even driverless cars,” the department said, “we’ll continue to do our part to keep San Bruno’s streets safe.”
Tesla reached a confidential settlement in a 2019 Autopilot crash case.
The case ended a month before trial after four years of litigation.
Settlement follows a $329 million verdict in a similar Florida incident.
In August of 2019, a man driving his Ford Explorer Sport Trac was hit from behind by another driver in a 2019 Tesla Model 3 who was using Autopilot. The Ford’s driver lost control as the truck rolled and his 15-year-old son, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected and killed. Just weeks before the case was set to go to trial, Tesla quietly settled the lawsuit that followed.
The Tesla driver, Romeo Yalung, was traveling at 69 mph (111 km/h) in lane three of Interstate 880 in California. Video from the EV shows the driver of the Ford, Benjamin Escudero, signaling and moving into the same lane ahead. Neither Yalung nor the Tesla, which had Autopilot engaged at the time, slowed down to avoid hitting the Ford.
The lawsuit named multiple parties, not only Tesla and Yalung but also Yalung’s wife, who was in the passenger seat at the time. Over four years, Judge Rebekah Everson had the option to dismiss the case but allowed it to move forward. Now, with trial just a month away, Tesla has reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount.
That might seem like a shock considering some of the surrounding factors. Tesla has a largely victorious record in court when lawsuits about Autopilot or Full Self-Driving (Supervised) come up. Juries and judges have agreed in almost all cases that the person behind the wheel is responsible for driving and not Tesla. In addition, video of the tragic crash certainly calls into question Mr. Yalung’s attentiveness.
That said, this all comes after a Florida jury decided that Tesla was 33 percent liable for another fatal crash involving Autopilot. In that case, the driver of the Tesla hit two people on the side of the road, admitted fault to the police, and said that he wasn’t paying attention when the crash happened. Despite that, the jury awarded the plaintiffs $242 million.
Tesla is now appealing that verdict, but another loss in court could have been damaging. Settling this California case may have been a calculated move to avoid the risk of a repeat outcome.
NHTSA is investigating 17,198 Rivian vans for potential seat belt failures.
Fraying braided cables may leave drivers without restraints in a crash.
Rivian’s EDV was built for Amazon but now sold as the ECV to others.
More than 17,000 of Rivian’s all-electric delivery vans are under the watchful eye of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due to potential failures of the driver’s seat belt anchorage system. According to the agency, drivers could be left without any kind of functional restraint in the event of a crash, which obviously poses a significant safety risk.
The NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation has received six Vehicle Owner Questionnaires that state the seat belt anchorage system can fail. These questionnaires “describe multiple instances in which the seat belt steel braided cable frays, breaks and/or unravels, leaving the occupants unrestrained in the event of a collision.”
It’s also noted that a frayed cable can weaken the seat belt load capacity. In the event of a collision, the NHTSA says a faulty seat belt system “presents an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety.”
A total of 17,198 examples of 2022 and 2023 model year Rivian EDVs will be investigated. The ODI says it will “focus on the integrity of the seat belt assembly, installation method, and potential design/manufacturing changes and deficiencies.” The investigation will also allow it to understand the frequency and severity of the alleged fault.
So far, the NHTSA is not aware of any injuries or fatalities caused by a failure of Rivian’s seat belt anchorage system.
The Rivian EDV is sold in three different wheelbase options and load capacities. It was initially built exclusively for Amazon after the retail giant placed an order for 100,000 vehicles, which will be delivered gradually until 2030. As of November 2023, the electric van has become available to other companies as well, where it is marketed as the ECV.
Chinese firm tests battery ejection tech to prevent fires in electric cars.
The demo sparked debate over safety risks to traffic and pedestrians.
Chery iCar 03T used in trial, though automaker denies any involvement.
EV fires, notoriously difficult to extinguish once they start, remain one of the toughest challenges for carmakers. Engineers continue racing to design battery packs resilient enough to survive crashes without igniting. In China, however, a very different approach has been showcased: a high-speed ejection system that literally launches the pack away like a projectile from the vehicle during an emergency.
If that sounds less like a safety breakthrough and more like and accident waiting to happen, you’re getting the idea. And yes, it really is that stupid.
Battery Launcher
The unusual demonstration was captured in a video that went viral on Chinese social media. The clip shows a large battery module violently shooting out of the side of an SUV before smoke appears. Safety workers quickly smothered the pack with a special blanket after it landed in a designated area with pillows.
According to Chinese reports, the system works in much the same way as an airbag. If sensors detect a thermal event in the pack, the system can trigger an ejection in less than a second, flinging the battery between 3–6 meters (10–20 feet) away from the vehicle. The idea is to protect occupants from a potential fire or even an explosion.
Good Luck Everyone Else
Of course, as many commenters pointed out, “somewhere else” could just mean straight into another moving car, onto pedestrians, or across live traffic. A battery pack that weighs hundreds of kilos is about as far from harmless as a projectile can get. And in the kind of heavy crash where fires are most likely, the car’s structure could crumple enough to jam the system anyway, leaving you with both the fire and the deadweight still on board.
Who Staged the Demo?
Here’s where it gets interesting. While we couldn’t find official information, markers on the SUV suggest the test was organized by the China Automotive Collision Repair & Technology Research Center. Stage graphics show it took place during the “Power Battery Launch Technology Demonstration and Exchange Meeting” on September 19, 2025.
The prototype appears to be based on the iCar 03T, though the automaker quickly distanced itself from the experiment. Posting on its Chinese social media accounts, the Chery-owned brand stated: “This has nothing to do with iCAR, please be rational.” Reports also claimed that Joyson Group may have collaborated on the project, but the company has since denied involvement, according to Epoch Times.
For all the spectacle, the so-called missile-style ejection system is a dead end. Lobbing a half-ton battery into traffic is not a safety feature, it’s a liability with wings. And in the real-world crashes where it might matter, the mechanism itself would likely be wrecked before it ever fired.
Semi-autonomous Opel Grandland uses colors and symbols to signal pedestrians.
Cyan, magenta, and green replace conventional white LEDs in specific scenarios.
Developed in-house by Opel with collaboration from TU Darmstadt University.
As cars edge closer to taking over more driving duties, the question of how they interact with the people around them becomes increasingly important. Technology may be ready to let drivers take their hands and eyes off the task, but it also raises a new challenge: how does a car signal its intentions to those outside it? In that spirit, Opel has built a Grandland prototype with a lighting system designed to speak directly to pedestrians.
The test model is equipped with Level 3 driver assistance, which allows the person behind the wheel to disengage under certain conditions. Once the vehicle is in charge, though, a fresh layer of communication is needed to make sure people on the street understand what the car is about to do.
Lights As A Language
The Grandland prototype has been fitted with a new camera system that can detect objects and gestures, combined with an AI-backed “intention prediction” function. This allows it to better recognize real world scenarios like when a pedestrian emerges from parked vehicles or a child steps on the road when chasing a ball.
When operating in Level 3 autonomy (or higher), the SUV’s front and rear indicators shine in cyan. This color was chosen as it is not associated with any other vehicle function. When a pedestrian is detected in the path of the vehicle, it starts braking and the LED headlights change from white to magenta.
Furthermore, a small screen that normally displays Opel’s Blitz emblem shows a warning sign or a pedestrian alongside a halt gesture. When the car has come to standstill, the LEDs turns green and the display shows a walking figure. In more complex situations when the AI algorithm can’t figure out what to do, the driver is prompted to take control of the vehicle.
Rethinking Headlights
Philipp Röckl, Global Lead Lighting at Stellantis, explains the thinking behind the project:
“Headlights clearly play an important part in increasing road safety – but modern lighting systems are capable of so much more. For example, lighting signatures can easily be animated and used for animations. And the illuminated Blitz on the Grandland can be substituted by a display that can both show the illuminated emblem and be used to communicate with other road users and pedestrians. By using existing lighting elements, it makes it easy to add communication features once we will introduce autonomous driving features in our cars”
The Grandland with the unique equipment and lighting features follows a number of prototypes and production vehicles from other brands that examine the same issue.
The model was created in-house in Opel’s Russelsheim headquarters in Germany and was showcased at the International Symposium on Automotive Lighting (ISAL) in Darmstadt. It is the result of a collaboration between the Opel Concept Workshop and students from the TU Darmstadt university.
Stellantis and TU Darmstadt have formed a strategic partnership for joint research into new lighting technologies since 2022. As part of this, the automaker is currently funding three doctoral students at the university’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.
On her part, Julisa Le, Stellantis’ Lead Innovation Engineer, said:
“We specifically chose colors that are not already associated with other vehicle functions to avoid misunderstandings. For example, red is intuitively understandable, but it is already used for stop lights or the rear lights of cars. Cyan and magenta have been thoroughly evaluated for perception purposes and are currently not present in any traffic situations. Both ensure clear, unambiguous communication with other road users.”
The new school has begun and students are back in class, notwithstanding the dozen
school districts that have gone year-round, according to the National Association for YearRound Education. We know full well school buses never stop operating, at least in most places, but the yellow machines are marching full force across North America,
delivering the most precious cargo. It’s an exciting yet anxiety-riddled time of year. With all those school buses and all those children on roads and highways, risk follows, largely in the form of other motorists.
But this school year, more than ever before, school buses are armed with innovations that target increased safety and efficiency. And technology offerings as well as adoption will only continue its upward movement. By 2032, the global student transportation market is forecast to more than double in value, to $4.95 billion from $2.31 billion last year, according to market intelligence firm Skyquest Technology Group. The North American market, especially the U.S., makes up the lion’s share and figures to continue to do so, though Skyquest’s recent report notes the rapid emergence of China then Japan and Australia as the forerunners of the fastest-expanding market of Asia Pacific.
All this growth is being largely led by AI-based vehicle and student monitoring and tracking, safety technology, and cloud-based fleet management systems. Look no further than this month’s technology “Superusers” to illustrate these points. Repeatedly, I read about student transporters who need and are getting access to real-time data ranging from student ridership to video, communications to vehicle telematics—that not only impact the decisions they need to make but are making them easier. In fact, all these technologies and then some are becoming increasingly integrated to give a more complete picture of operational safety and efficiency.
Elsewhere in this magazine issue, the technology conversation inevitably turns to securing the plethora of data now at student transporters’ fingertips. If the technology itself doesn’t leave you feeling trepidation, cyberattacks will. The Watch Dog Blog reported last year that the Verizon Data Breach Report saw a 258-percent increase in total security incidents plaguing education and research sectors in 2023 compared to the previous year and a staggering 546 percent rise in data breach cases.
In addition to the security measures available to or being taken by student transportation operations, I found especially informative the IT glossary Senior Editor Taylor Ekbatani included in her article. It wasn’t long ago we ran a similar glossary that defined electric school bus terminology. Many of those words and acronyms are now commonplace throughout much of the industry. I suspect many of the IT terms provided this month have already entered the industry lexicon.
With all today’s technology driving student transportation operations, not to mention tomorrow’s, collaboration with IT departments and a more intimate knowledge of technological solutions is a must. At the very least, student transportation leaders need to know what questions to ask of their IT departments and their dealers. And certainly, levels of security and data redundancy are at the top of the list.
Amid all this technology talk, the solutions I am most intrigued by are emerging virtual reality and augmented reality tools for maintenance professionals. Bob Pudlewski, NSTA Hall of Famer and our magazine’s technical editor, highlights how VR and AR as well as AI are changing or will change maintenance operations. Imagine being able to see into an engine to diagnose an especially vexing (and hidden) issue. Soon, Pudlewski writes, this will be possible.
It might happen even faster. Just two years ago at STN EXPO East in Indianapolis, Indiana, Cummins demonstrated during a plant tour how it is poised to use VR and AR goggles in its manufacturing and troubleshooting. The next great wave of innovation to hit the garage? As you read the following pages, ask yourself how the technologies discussed could assist and streamline your operations. Perhaps you and your transportation team are already using some of them. If so, what’s your “Superuser” story? I’d love to hear about it, and so would your peers across the industry.
Editor’s Note: As reprinted from the September 2025 issue of School Transportation News.
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