DeKalb County School buses have passed state inspection.
State Trooper Darryl Winningham, inspector for this district, completed his evaluation last week of all the buses in the fleet including the substitute buses.
“We had our annual state inspection Monday through Thursday. We’ve got 42 buses in our fleet including 32 which are on a route. Trooper Winningham inspects them. He goes from top to bottom and front to back looking at every switch, every light, tires, and everything else. It’s a very thorough inspection,” said Transportation Supervisor Jimmy Sprague.
In an interview with WJLE last year, Trooper Winningham described the bus inspection process. “We do annual inspections on all buses but we also do spot checks through the year if we have a reason. We work to ensure that everything is properly working on a bus before it gets back on the highway. I go from (checking) the tires all the way to the top of the buses. I check belts, fluid levels, brake pads, brake drums, brake lines, air lines, etc. Everything is checked on those buses for safety from the lights inside to the seats being secured in them. We check windshield wiper blades, the horn. We check every alarm and buzzer for all doors and emergency exits. Here at the (school bus garage) where we do all the inspections, the (local) crew is outstanding to work with. They go above and beyond to make sure that every bus is safe for every child,” said Trooper Winningham.
“I am proud to say that our buses are some of the safest buses in the state. We passed inspection at 100%,” said Sprague. I’m not saying we didn’t have any deficiencies. I think he (Trooper Winningham) found an exhaust leak and a couple of buses had some turn signal bulbs that were out. But the inspection reflects the work that we do at the shop with Foreman Orlando Guzman and Mechanic Tony Trapp. If something comes in and the driver has an issue we fix it right there. Sometimes we’re not able to fix it right then. We’ll have to order a part but a majority of the time we’ve got parts in stock to make the repair right then,” he said.
On Friday, the bus drivers tested for recertification at Northside Elementary School. “All of our drivers passed the test and all of them are recertified with the state,” Sprague concluded.
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