COLUMBUS, Ohio -- There are millions of dollars spent every year to keep your child's bus in working order, but dozens of buses never leave the parking lot because of mechanical failures or other problems.

The school bus inspection report for bus number 446 in Columbus City Schools shows the bus has been on the road taking children to school this year. And every time is has been inspected, it has received a failing grade, NBC 4's Marcus Thorpe reported.

An NBC 4 investigation found the state's biggest district, Columbus City Schools had 715 buses pulled out of service and 759 buses with minor violations last year.

A district representative did not return numerous calls from NBC 4, attempting to find out how many times a bus needs to fail inspection before it is pulled out of rotation.

Jennifer Orth takes a tremendous leap of faith every morning as four of her five children board a Hilliard school bus.

"It's tough. Every day we put our kids in God's hands," Orth said.

Westerville City Schools operates 128 buses daily.

"We're transporting the world's most previous cargo. We are transporting someone's child," said Randy Snyder, of Westerville.

"(When) dealing with a mechanical piece of equipment there are always going to be breakdowns," Snyder said.

Each year, all the buses in the state go through a rigorous 150 point inspection plan.

Bus 121 had its inspection on Dec. 27, 2007 and had several problems. One of the horns was out, the defroster was missing, the fire extinguisher was loose, screws were missing from a panel and handrails on the right side of the bus were loose. As a result, the bus was pulled out of service.

NBC 4 pored through inspection papers from the 2007 school year.

In Westerville, during the two mandatory highway patrol inspections and other spot checks, 43 buses were pulled out of service. A total of 78 buses had minor violations.

In Hilliard, 125 buses were pulled out of service, and 207 had minor violations.

In South-Western City Schools, 87 buses were pulled out of service and 76 of them had minor violations.

Some of the buses came up in both categories and some of them were flagged multiple times during the year.

A representative for Columbus City Schools said he doesn't think the number buses pulled in the district is unusually high, especially with the number of miles they log and the age of the fleet.

The representative said maintenance is a challenge and the district has very high expectations.

The inspection process doesn't end with highway patrol, and schools are looking at the buses daily.

Districts like Westerville also stay on top of problems with monthly tire vendor checks and 2,500 mile mechanical checks.

Columbus City Schools uses an electronic system check daily, and Westerville and others plan on migrating to the same electronic system soon.

RESOURCES:
Westerville Report
Hilliard Report
South-Western City Schools Report
Columbus Report

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