A Rapid ‘50’ bus had what police consider a mechanical failure Thursday morning when it stopped in front of Grand Valley State University’s Kirkhof Center and its inner back tires blew out. No injuries were reported as a result of the problem.

Although many students said they saw a fire under the bus toward the rear, Rapid spokesperson Jennifer Kalczuk said the fire department reported no sign of a fire.

“According to the report, the fire department came and reported no fire and no hot spots,” Kalczuk said. “What happened was that the two rear tires blew on the bus.”

The Rapid could not disclose the cause of the problem until the bus was analyzed by its maintenance crew.

However, Captain Brandon DeHaan of the Grand Valley Police Department said it is speculated that the rear breaks overheated, contributing to the explosion of the tires.

“It is believed at this time the rear breaks may have stuck on, thus becoming pretty hot and then what happened was that it was so hot that it burst the rear tires,” DeHaan said.

The Rapid has not released an official statement yet on the identified cause of the tire explosion. However, Kalczuk said these types of mechanical failures do not happen frequently.

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