DAYTON, Texas – Current and former school bus drivers for Dayton Independent School District contend some of the buses in service are unfit to transport children.
"The tires seem to be the biggest issue," former driver Misty Woods said.
Woods provided a series of photo that appear to show bus tires rotted, bubbling and with almost no tread.
Local 2 Investigates cameras caught footage of some school buses on the way to transport children with tires that appeared to have minimal tread.
Woods was only an employee of Dayton ISD for just a few months and has a pending unemployment claim against the district.
But another driver, still employed by Dayton ISD, reiterated Woods' comments.
"It is going to take an accident. It is going to take a tragedy," the driver said.
Local 2 has agreed not to disclose the driver's name since she is still employed by the district.
"The problem is the buses are not being maintained properly," the driver said.
Local 2 reviewed more than 600 pages of 2014 maintenance records pertaining to Dayton ISD school buses. The majority of the documents were work orders, essentially complaints, filed by bus drivers regarding problems with buses.
"Floor rotted" wrote one driver.
"Nothing we can do for floor," a mechanic responded.
"Balding left front tire" wrote another driver.
"Don't have good tires to put on bus right now but when tires come in, we'll put some on it," a mechanic wrote.
Local 2 Investigates learned that in the above example, and others, buses were kept in service and cleared to pick up children.
Click here to examine a selection of Dayton ISD school bus work orders.
Dayton ISD administrators repeatedly declined Local 2's requests for an on camera interview to address the perceived safety issues, but did answer question via email.
"Why are school buses not deemed roadworthy by the school district's bus drivers kept on the road?" Local 2 reporter Joel Eisenbaum asked.
"School bus drivers are responsible for conducting a pre-trip and post-trip inspection of their school buses on a daily basis," said Stacey Gatlin, with Dayton ISD. "Transportation procedures require bus drivers to complete a work order when they find a problem with their school bus. Bus work orders are then prioritized and completed ASAP. However, if there is an issue with a bus, the bus driver is assigned a spare bus to be driven until their bus is fixed and safe to transport students."
"Why are some buses being outfitted with used tires?" Eisenbaum asked.
"When bus tires are identified to have exceeded their tread life, they are changed as soon as possible with new tires," Gatlin said. "However, sometimes a used tire -- spare tires with plenty of tread life remaining -- is utilized and placed on a bus to allow for even tread wear until tires can be replaced with new tires."
"Why do you describe your transportation department as being in a period transition? Are students safe during this period of transition?"
"Our current director of transportation has accepted a position with another district and we are in the process of hiring a new director," Gatlin said. "Student safety is a top priority for us and we are confident that our students will continue to be transported safely during our search for a new director."
Local 2 Investigates learned Tuesday through a school district source, a bus Dayton ISD presented as being out of service while a maintenance issue was addressed, was not"out of service but instead continued to transport children.
After Local 2 inquired about that particular bus, within 24 hours the issue was corrected. But that was more than a month after a Dayton ISD bus driver submitted a work order noting the deficiency.