Busted school bus fixed after mechanic complains

A mechanical problem was discovered in a Desert Sands Unified School District bus after a complaint from a staff member.

A concerned viewer reached out to our station to look into this issue.

According to the school district, one of their school buses had a cracked rear differential.

“It had some oil seepage on it, and the crack wasn’t visible until the rear differential was removed from the bus, so once we saw that, we had those replaced right away,” said Director of Maintenance, Operations, and Transportation with DSUSD Rick Majors.

The bus had originally passed a previous inspection.

“The only point that we realized the differential was cracked was when it was removed from the bus, so at what point was it cracked? We don’t really know. The evidence done on the inspection was oil seepage,” said Majors.

“It was actually an issue that was inspected by the California Highway Patrol as well, and declared to be not an out-of-service issue, but it was on the list to be fixed,” said Majors.

We asked a local mechanic how dangerous driving a bus with a cracked rear differential would be.

“Not very dangerous, the worst thing that can happen is it’s going to get stranded and it’s got to get towed, it’s not going to go anywhere,” said Ernesto Qiroz, he’s been a mechanic for more than 20 years.

The Desert Sands Unified School District runs about 75 to 85 school buses every school day. But before the buses can head out of the yard they are inspected thoroughly.

Bus drivers spend 20 minutes inspecting the bus before they make their routes.

“The mechanics themselves are required to bring every bus in every 3,000 miles or every 45 days, and this is by state code in conducting an inspection on a bus, they do their routine servicing during that period as well,” said Majors.

The California Highway Patrol also does a yearly inspection of all the buses and the terminal where the buses are parked and repaired.

“Study after study has shown the school bus transportation is the safest form of transportation that there is and Desert Sands prides itself on the work that our talented mechanics do and our bus drivers as well,” said Majors.

The bus with the crack rear differential has been fully repaired and is back in service.