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School bus companies battle brutal cold Tuesday morning

DATTCO said it takes months of preparation to get their fleet winter-ready.

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — School bus companies around the state were hard at work Tuesday morning battling the bitter cold to make sure students got to school safely and on time.

Despite many schools opening on a two-hour delay because of the weather, the engines were still running early at the DATTCO bus yard in New Britain. Delays came in across the state as the windchill registered below zero in some places.

“We bring in extra drivers so they come in and start up all the vehicles cause I don’t want drivers coming in last minute and finding that their airlines are frozen or something," said Bryony Chamberlain, DATTCO Vice President of School Bus.

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Chamberlain said it takes months of preparation to get their fleet winter-ready.  
“We start preparing back in October, November," Chamberliain explained. "We have to do some additional winter preparedness on all of our vehicles so we go through. We check all the vehicles, the batteries are in fully optimal condition. We’ll then go through and change out the fuel filters and we put in additional additives to the fuel to make sure the fuel doesn’t freeze."

However, there is one issue that's been hard to prepare for and it's making the bitter cold of winter a little more brutal: bus driver shortages.

“We’ve got a number of drivers who are quarantining or sick, same as everybody else has, so it has shortened our number of people available. It makes it more difficult, so it means there will be some additional delays," said Chamberlain. 

Chamberlain urged parents and students to be patient as they work to overcome the staffing shortages.

RELATED: Cold weather protocol activated in Connecticut

Angelo Bavaro is an anchor and reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at abavaro@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. 

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