Report: Half Of New Jersey School Buses Don't Pass Inspection
By David Madden, Anne-Marie Green
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) -- A new report from New Jersey transportation officials indicates that more than half of the state's 24,000 school buses routinely fail their initial semi-annual inspections.
About four-fifths of the problems were corrected the same day and the bus safely returned to the road. But for the remaining 20 percent, the shortcomings were deemed more serious.
Mike Horan, with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, says you'd be surprised what can take a bus out of service.
"You're talking, like, rips in seats, a light may be out, even a bandage might be missing from a safety kit inside the bus," he tells KYW Newsradio.
Forty-seven percent of the inspections received a temporary notice for problems like that. But another 12 percent were given 30-day suspensions for more serious concerns, like faulty brakes.
Horan says that in 91 percent of the cases when buses are taken off the road, corrections are made immediately and the bans are subsequently lifted.
The bottom line, according to Horan, is that 95 percent of the buses on the road are deemed safe.
The state was putting its report card for parents to check those inspections on line at njmvc.gov.
