20 July 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The Kansas Highway Patrol was busy inspecting school buses at First Student in Wichita Thursday morning
Each year before school begins, the KHP inspects nearly 11,000 buses across the state.
School districts and private businesses go through all the buses and do mechanical inspections, which include brake and driveline checks.
“Once they get that done, they call us out, and we go through and do an exterior and interior inspection as well,” said KHP Trooper Chad Crittenden. “We are checking all the lights on the outside of the bus, checking emergency exits, the mirrors, the tires, making sure everything has got a fire extinguisher and first aid, CPR kits in there.”
If the buses are found to have a defect, most can be corrected right away. However, in some cases, something critical is found.
“It is pretty rare that we have buses that fail, but every once in a while, we just had rain last night, so it is not uncommon for a couple of light bulbs to go out or something like that just due to the humidity that is out here,” Crittenden said.
It is very important that we get this done. These kiddos are our most precious commodity that is running up and down our roadways every day”
Trooper Chad Crittenden
Once the bus passes inspection, it is marked.
“Each school bus will get a red sticker on the windshield, and it has a number on the sticker knowing that we have done that bus and we have a tracking history of that bus as well,” Crittenden added.