KPRC 2 is getting you classroom ready. With tens of thousands of students across the Houston area riding the bus to school every day, the safety of those vehicles is always top of mind for parents. School districts are required to abide by strict regulations. KPRC 2 talked to Kayne Smith, Director of Transportation Services at CyFair ISD, who walked us through the inspection process step by step.
“Every morning our school bus drivers will come in and do what we call a pre-trip inspection. We actually do the inspections all electronically on tablets that are on the bus. They’ll check the inside of the bus. They’ll check the perimeter around the bus. Check the tires. Part of the pre-trip inspection is we have to make sure our lights are working. Every single one of CyFair ISD’s school bus routes will have 3 point seatbelts. The drivers will come in and do an inspection of these seatbelts to make sure that each seatbelt is in good working order. This is one of the multiple emergency exits we have on a school bus. It sounds an alarm when any of these are opened so we have to make sure they are working properly and that the alarms are sounding when they are open. We bring our buses into the shop on a regular basis and do what we call preventative maintenance and inspection. It can involve going through all the belts, the hoses, doing oil changes, fluid changes, lubricants, going through and greasing axles, making sure every single piece that’s manufacturer recommended is inspected and maintained,” Smith said.
With a fleet of 1,028 buses, CyFair ISD is the largest transporter of students in Texas, taking 87,000 students to and from school every day.
The district’s gasoline and propane buses are inspected by an in-house technician every 2,500 miles and have their oil and filters changed. For diesel buses, it can be anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000 miles, depending on the manufacturer’s recommendation.
“If they find any fault on that school bus, it immediately notifies a shop foreman at the transportation center and they can immediately pull that bus off the route. Every school bus must meet the minimum safety standards set for the FMVSS. Every school bus must meet the minimum bus specifications expectations that are set forth by the Texas DPS and the federal government,” Smith said.
CyFair ISD said it is required to keep all of the maintenance records for the life of a school bus, which are replaced every 12 years. Parents are encouraged to ask their child’s school district not only about the pre- and post-inspections but also the type of training drivers are required to complete in order to operate a school bus.