Buses keep on trucking with high safety marks

Area school buses top state averages for passing inspections

By Heather Kronmueller ~ Southeast Missourian

Every spring the Missouri State Highway Patrol performs 105-point safety inspections on all of the school buses in the state. But even if 104 items pass, a faulty headlight or a horn that doesn't honk could cause the bus to fail.

But that doesn't mean buses are put out of service.

That would only happen if a bus were found to have a serious defect, like an exhaust leak, brake defect or inoperable stop-signal arm.

Buses in the Oak Ridge, Cape Girardeau, Jackson, and Scott City school districts were inspected over the past two weeks and found to be in excellent mechanical condition, according to Keith Woodruff, chief motor vehicle inspector for the highway patrol office in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

"Each of those districts scored 91 percent or above and will receive the Fleet Excellence Award," Woodruff said.

The award is given annually by the highway patrol and Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to districts receiving a 90 percent or better passage rating on their inspections.

Scoring 100 percent

This year the seven buses used by the Oak Ridge School District received a score of 100 percent for the fifth consecutive year, while the 25 buses used by the Cape Girardeau School District received a score of 96 percent and the 11 buses used by the Scott City School District received a score of 91 percent.

Jackson, the largest school district in Southeast Missouri in terms of square mileage, has 61 buses and received a score of 97 percent. Only two of its buses failed -- barely.

Woodruff said the defects, a broken horn and a burned-out light, were very minor.

"We were really disappointed from the fact that we had one where the horn honked and then in the inspection it didn't, and in the other a tail light worked right before the inspection and then it burned out during the inspection," said Ron Anderson, Jackson superintendent. "It was really freaky, but a 97 percent is still very excellent."

Connie Brown, a parent in the Jackson school district, said the results are reassuring.

Her son, Matt, rides a bus to and from West Lane Elementary every day and her daughter, Jennifer, rides to Orchard Elementary.

"It makes me feel like I can feel secure that my kids are safe on the way to school," she said.

Cheri Fuemmeler, Oak Ridge superintendent, and Scott City superintendent Roger Tatum, said they hope the results will make parents in their districts feel the same way.

"A lot of the children in our district ride the bus to school every day," Fuemmeler said. "Parents entrust us with the care of their children. It's a real pleasure to know that we are doing the right thing."

All of the school buses in Jackson, Oak Ridge and Scott City are owned by the individual districts.

Rented transportation

That's not the case in Cape Girardeau. The school district rents all of its 25 buses from First Student, Inc. But Woodruff, the inspector, said the buses are still held to the same standards. The only difference is the school district is not responsible for repairing any defects; the company that owns the buses is responsible.

This year only one of the 25 Cape Girardeau buses didn't pass. It had a burned-out light.

Woodruff said the buses used by districts around Cape Girardeau usually do well on the inspections, but that's not true statewide.

The average pass rate for Missouri during 2001 inspections was 85.7 percent. The average rate for 2002 has not yet been calculated.

"In my 24 years here, we've never had to take a bus out of service permanently," he said. "We do occasionally have instances where when we inspect the buses there are items with serious defects and the bus has to be placed out of service until repairs are made."

Woodruff said major exhaust leaks, brake defects, bad tires and inoperable emergency doors are some problems that remove a bus from service.

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 128