The Missouri State Highway Patrol recently completed its annual school bus inspections for the 2024-25 school year, and the Montgomery County R-II and the Wellsville-Middletown R-I school districts turned in successful results.

W-M had a 100 percent approval rate with no out-of-service buses, while Montgomery County had a 74 percent approval rate with three defective buses and three out-of-service buses.

The annual school bus inspection report was released by Colonel Michael Turner, superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The results were divided into three categories – approved, defective and out-of-service. Ninety of the buses in the state (10,144) that were inspected were approved.

“Missouri State Highway Patrol personnel, with the cooperation of pupil transportation professionals, completed the successful inspection of 11,255 school buses in accordance with Missouri revised state statutes,” Turner said. “These efforts help the Patrol, Missouri schools, and private pupil transportation companies ensure schoolchildren are safe while they travel on school buses.”

There were 799 buses that were rated defective — which means one or more issues – upon initial inspection and 312 that were rated out-of-service. Last year, there were 895 defective buses and 410 out-of-service buses.

Buses that were rated defective must be repaired within 10 days. For out-of-service buses, they must have their components corrected and must be reinspected by state highway patrol personnel.

Among the items that are looked at during the safety inspection are air pollution, brakes, bumpers, emergency doors and exits, fuel system, mirrors, driver’s seat belt, seats, tires, wheels and windshield wipers. It is required that school buses should be inspected yearly at an official motor vehicle safety inspection station at least two months before the school year begins.

The W-M school district had eight buses passing state inspection with no defective issues. It had a 100 percent approval rate two years ago.

“I was pleased to hear that 100% of our fleet passed the Highway Patrol inspections,” W-M Superintendent Tiffany Gosseen said. “John Howell was instrumental in making this happen for us. All of our bus drivers do a great job with their pre-trip inspections and are quick to notify my office if anything needs to be addressed.”

The R-II school district has 23 buses, 17 of them being approved. Its approval rate dropped from 92 percent last year. It had an approval rate of 90 percent or above for three years in a row before that streak was snapped this year.

The results from the neighboring school districts include: Gasconade R-I (100 percent), Wright City R-II (94 percent), Community R-VI (82 percent), Warren County R-III (78 percent), Mexico 59 (74 percent) and Van-Far (69 percent).