Most parents and students give school buses little thought during the summer, but Nick Pruitt and Rodney Murphy, transportation directors for the Wylie and Abilene school districts, can think of little else.

"We only run a few buses for summer school, so this is the time we give our buses a detailed inspection, going over each one thoroughly," Murphy said.

Once school starts, he said, most buses are running continually, so the summer inspections are crucial.

According to Pruitt, bus safety is the major concern.

"Our goal is to get students safely and efficiently to and from school each day," he said. "It's a big responsibility, and we take it very seriously."

Bus safety recently made headlines when an illegal retread tire blew out, causing a chartered bus to crash in Dallas, killing 16 passengers. Although regulations allow area schools to use retread tires on buses, neither AISD nor WISD use them.

1 million miles

According to Murphy, almost 1 million miles were put on Abilene's 65 regular and special needs buses during the last school year, which equals a lot of wear and tear and maintenance time. Pruitt said Wylie's 21 buses put on about 165,000 total miles last year.

Wylie had no accidents last year, and Abilene ISD buses were involved in about 15 minor incidents.

Bus drivers undergo more than 20 hours of state-required training, and Pruitt said safety is the responsibility of riders as well as the driver.

"We give bus safety training twice a year and teach students to keep themselves and their bus safe," he said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety requires twice yearly bus safety training on each public school campus. The training includes a video on bus safety, a review of bus rules and emergency bus evacuation drills that give each student the opportunity to get on and off a bus safely.

Data for the 2006-07 school year show approximately 8,500 students rode AISD buses every day with the bus capacity averaging 75 percent across the district.

Pruitt said WISD ran at about 60 percent capacity with approximately 1,500 students daily. Seating capacity on a regular school bus is 71 students.

Murphy and Pruitt said that while the 2007-08 numbers are not available yet, they saw a slight increase in riders, but they said they have no way of knowing if higher gas prices were the reason. The number of riders can fluctuate between morning and afternoon, days, athletic seasons or the weather.

Onboard safety

Regular school buses are not equipped with seat belts, making rider responsibility one of the most important aspects of bus safety. Buses designated for special needs such as wheelchairs are equipped with the appropriate belts and buckling equipment.

For additional security, all but four of Abilene's buses are equipped with cameras, and every bus has a radio for communication with the bus barn and campuses.

Wylie's buses do not have cameras but are equipped with radios.

During the first week of school, riders are learning the routine, and bus drivers are becoming familiar with new riders, which can cause buses run a little late. As a result, Murphy encourages parents to be patient.

"It takes riders a few days to get in the swing of things, and some will even get on the wrong bus," he said. "Parents should be patient and remember drivers are doing the best they can. It will take about a week to get things running smoothly."

If children get on the wrong bus or miss a stop, the driver will take them back to campus where parents will be notified to pick up their child.