Highway Patrol: 11% of Missouri school buses deemed defective or placed out of service

The Missouri State Highway Patrol released its annual school bus inspection report and found more than 11 percent of the buses failed inspection.

Highway Patrol inspected 11,890 buses in the state. Out of those, 1,153 were deemed defective and 244 were placed out-of-service. Defective buses can still be used to transport students and school districts have ten days to make repairs before a follow-up inspection.

In Columbia, the school district had 23 defective buses and four buses placed out of service. 161 of its buses, or 85.6 percent, passed inspection.

Six buses in Jefferson City Public Schools’ fleet were defective and two were taken out of service for repair.

Several Mid-Missouri school districts had all over their buses pass inspection. Buses in the fleets of Moberly Public Schools, Mexico Public Schools, Camdenton R-III, Cole County R-1, Gasconade County R-I, Hallsville, R-IV, Morgan County R-II, and South Callaway R-II, among others, were all approved by the Highway Patrol inspection program.

In Blackwater R-II, none of its buses passed inspection. Three were deemed defective and one was placed out of service. In Osage County R-I, out of six buses, three were taken out of service and one was deemed defective.

According to the Highway Patrol, all of the buses were inspected between February 4 and April 30.