Entire School Bus Fleet Passes State Inspection

By Nicole Kauffman, Herald-Times, Bloomington, Ind.

Sep. 6–While buses can pass inspection annually, that certainly doesn’t mean nothing will go wrong during trips to and from school.

It’s up to a number of people to spot a problem, evaluate it, fix it and get the bus back on the road.

Take the example of a situation Friday, when a driver smelled something hot or smoky and called the Monroe County Community School Corp. transportation office to report that she wanted to transfer her student riders to another bus.

In that case, “definitely, there was nothing actually on fire and/or smoking,” Clark said.

Here’s how that was determined: After the students were transferred to a different bus, an MCCSC mechanic drove the first bus back to the garage to see what, if anything, was mechanically wrong, said Mike Clark, MCCSC director of transportation.

What they check depends on what is reported. That bus was checked visually and had its battery cables, starter cables, wiring and control panel inspected. Clark said the bus had new brakes on it, which sometimes can cause a strange smell.

In the recent case of a driver who complained about brakes making a popping noise, the bus immediately was taken out of service, all its brake parts were removed so the brake chamber could be inspected and a mechanic took it for a test drive.

“If there are no mechanical defects, it’s placed back out on the road,” Clark said.

MCCSC has 109 corporation-owned buses and 34 contract buses.

“We keep additional spares here,” Clark said.

A total of 126 buses are used on routes every weekday, driving about 9,000 children 8,000 miles a day.

Allen “A.J.” Jackson and his team of mechanics had something to celebrate this summer, attaining a goal they’d had for a long time: All 109 Monroe County Community School Corp. buses Jackson and his men maintain passed their annual inspection with flying colors during the same inspection.

It was the only time in 22 years with MCCSC that Jackson, the head mechanic, witnessed such a feat.

“We celebrated. It’s a goal we’ve all been aimed to getting,” he said of himself and mechanics Gary Koontz, Scott Doane, Rob Poole and Dan Stines.

It’s easy for something to go wrong during inspections. Not even wrong, really, just not completely right.

Mike Clark, MCCSC director of transportation, has a thick, black, three-ring binder in his office detailing what gets checked in annual inspections, which are carried out over three days by the Indiana State Police.

“This is the criteria buses have to meet for inspection,” he said.

The recent inspection started at the end of July. The 34 contract buses used by MCCSC have separate inspections at the county highway garage, Clark said.

Inspections involve everything from checking each light, to testing turn signals and brake pads, the oil and the emergency exit buzzer.

Lights are the trickiest part, Jackson said. They can be checked over and over and over — even just before the inspection — and they can burn out at just the wrong time.

This year, the mechanics took the inspection manual and went through it repeatedly with each bus. In the summer, everything was even double-checked, Jackson said. When asked what motivated him, Jackson said “Just safety.”

“When that bus leaves the garage, Allen wants it ready for inspection,” Clark said.

Clark said the out-of-service rate for MCCSC in the past has been “very minimal,” but that it’s unusual for all 109 buses to pass inspection at one time.

“Obviously, we’re operating those buses on a daily basis,” Clark said. “There are also summer-school buses on the route being driven daily.”

Jackson doesn’t take all the credit for himself. He said the goal could not have been achieved without the rest of his team.

“It just takes teamwork between all of them. That’s just the way it works,” he said.

The MCCSC mechanics can be found at work between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. Jackson works a 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift.

“It’s something different every day. It is,” he said.

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