Trash Truck Problem May Be Nationwide : Investigation: Experts say mechanical failure that caused fatal accident with school bus could threaten similar fleets across country.

The mechanical failure that caused a fatal accident between a city trash truck and a school bus last week represents an endemic problem that could threaten not only Los Angeles’ fleet, but similar trucks nationwide, according to an expert investigating the accident.

Close inspection of the truck involved in the accident and others like it indicates severe problems in the design, construction and workmanship of Ontario-based manufacturer Amrep Corp., the source said in an interview Friday.

“This accident can be attributed to the manufacturing of the truck,” he said, speaking on the condition that he not be identified by name.

The source also said he has found problems in trucks made by other manufacturers and questioned whether the industry is pressured into shoddy work because it largely serves public agencies that award contracts to the lowest bidder.

“This is not an isolated failure. If you go out and look at other trucks there are similar kinds of problems. This is an incident that will wake everybody up,” he added. “This accident could have happened somewhere else. There are questions about the nationwide fleet.”

Efforts to reach Amrep officials Friday were unsuccessful. Amrep attorney James Reed had previously insisted that the mechanical failure was “an isolated case.”

“I’ve been with them since ‘84,” Reed told The Times last week, “and I’ve never heard of this type of incident before.”

But city bureaucrats have confirmed that at least two other Amrep trucks in the Los Angeles fleet suffered similar failures in the past 18 months, with hydraulic pistons from the trash-compacting mechanism bursting through the steel sides of the $105,000 trucks.

With the previous incidents, “nobody recognized that this could kill somebody,” the source said Friday. “It is the city’s responsibility to tell other municipalities about this.”

Mayor Richard Riordan formed a special task force hours after the Dec. 6 crash, hiring independent metallurgical experts from Seal Laboratories to inspect the trucks alongside mechanics from the city and Amrep. Seal is expected to present a report Monday to the Board of Public Works detailing its findings. Company President Roland Marti refused to release the report or discuss it Friday.

Board of Public Works Vice President Frank Cardenas said in a letter to the City Council on Friday that Amrep has agreed to hire a structural engineer to analyze the packer blades and redesign them if necessary and review and improve its welding techniques.

In other developments Friday:

* A lawyer filed legal claims demanding $40 million from the city on behalf of the families of Brian Serrano, one of two 8-year-old boys killed in the crash, and Serrano’s cousin Mario Garay, who suffered a fractured skull but survived. The family of Francisco Mata, who also died in the accident, said they have not yet pursued legal action.

* Some 4,500 tons of trash continued to sit on curbs in the San Fernando Valley as mechanics struggled to remove and repair parts of the trash-compacting mechanism in more than 100 Amrep trucks. The city expected to catch up this weekend, but to fall behind again next week.

* City officials revealed that by Sunday, truck drivers will have racked up $363,000 in overtime. If part of the fleet continues to be grounded for inspection and repair, Bureau of Sanitation Director Del Biagi said the overtime costs would be about $478,000 every two weeks, and the refuse collection division could run out of money in January.

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Mechanics have also been working hundreds of hours of overtime since the crash, but officials did not return calls for comment Friday regarding expenses.

The problem in the ill-fated truck that caused the accident, No. 70, came when the hydraulic pistons that push the packer blade back and forth inside the truck to compact trash came loose from the blade. Once the connection between the pistons and the blade was broken, city officials have previously explained, the pistons somehow rotated inside the truck. When the driver powered up the hydraulic compacting system, one of the pistons shot out sideways, piercing the truck’s shell, rather than pushing toward the back.

The source interviewed Friday--who has been part of the team inspecting and repairing the trucks for the past 10 days--said the problem is caused by a tendency of the packer blade to develop cracks. When the cracks become too big, he said, the pistons come loose because they have no solid surface to hang on to.

“If the blade breaks,” the source explained, “then the hydraulic arm cannot continue pushing.”

By last Monday, the inspection task force had pinpointed problems with cracking packer blades and began pulling more trucks off the road so mechanics could remove, reinforce or replace the ailing blades. They are installing metal gussets to reinforce connections in the compacting system and reduce pressure on the moving parts.

Packer blades should be inspected for cracks often, the source said, but trucks like No. 70--a 1993 model, one of the older ones in the automated fleet--are further hindered because it is difficult to remove the blade from the truck for close examination. At some point, Assistant City Atty. Christopher Westhoff said earlier in the week, Amrep changed its design to make removal easier and to reinforce the connection between the pistons and the blade.

Amrep has built the bodies for city trash trucks since 1981, and has a city contract to furnish spare parts for its trash trucks until Oct. 31, 1997.

The city is still receiving new trucks from Amrep at the rate of three or four a week. Board of Public Works commissioners questioned the prudence of this ongoing delivery the day after the accident, but decided not to take any action until the truck inspections were complete.

The company is owned by Inland Empire businessman Jose A. Ghibaudo, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. The company’s assets are $3.5 million, its liabilities $6 million, according to court records.

The company has been the target of various lawsuits, including a 1994 federal lawsuit in which a rival trash company, Sunbelt Automated Systems Inc., alleged that Amrep stole a patented design for an automated trash arm--the very mechanism that is responsible for slamming into the school bus.

In July, a jury found that Amrep did violate patent laws and ordered the company to pay Sunbelt $1.6 million. Amrep appealed the decision.

Several city truck drivers have complained about the quality of Amrep’s trucks--criticism echoed Friday by the source involved in the recent inspections.

“Amrep is sadly deficient in welding quality,” he said. Other trucks, he said--particularly those in the city fleet manufactured by the Heil Co.--are better.

In interviews over the past week, truck drivers have agreed, saying that the city’s cost-cutting bureaucrats always opt for the least expensive contract and have ended up with “a cheap truck.” Amrep represents the largest portion of the city’s automated fleet with 390 trucks. The next largest chunk, 48, were made by Heil.

Union representatives said the No. 1 complaint of drivers and mechanics is that they cannot be more involved in the purchasing of the vehicles.

“It should be low-bid quality, not low-bid period,” Local 347 staff Director Julie Butcher said, summarizing her constituents’ complaints. “If it’s $300 less upfront, but you have to fix it again and again and again . . . “

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Driver Gilbert Alarcon said that his Heil truck has braced walls that are tougher than the Amrep counterparts, and that the hydraulic pistons are attached to the packer blade with their thickest segments against the blade, where stress is highest.

Still, the source involved in the inspection said there are also problems with other automated truck manufacturers, probably because the industry is so beholden to public agencies who award contracts based almost exclusively on who can offer the lowest price.

“When you look at the level of sophistication in this business, it is below many other industries,” he said. “It is not a glamour industry.”

Times correspondent Geoffrey Mohan and staff writers Robert Lopez and Erin Texeira also contributed to this story.