Special Report: Is South Carolina's aging school bus fleet safe?

Most people drive cars less than 15 years old, but many of the state's children are riding in school buses made more than 30 years ago.

[calvincrews]

the older school buses can run for forever

[ja_e]

i would PAY to ride on a bus from 1987

[carllarsen]

Nothing wrong with old busses, the school districts just need better mechanics to keep them perfect.

[goat]

Ironic they're concerned about getting old buses off the streets while the newer ones are commonly catching on fire.

[jedk]

my car was made in 1986 and it still runs lol

[daviddancer]

Those dt466 diesels will last forever. Don’t retire them especially if they are not rusty.

[skelegunsoooooo]

They need to simply take care of these Old buses

[harrimanfox]

note how all the newer busses end up in the shop..

[plumbingstuffinoregon]

Who would question the safety of a school bus? School buses have been built pretty much the exact same way since their existence. As long as they're maintained there's no real difference between a bus built in 1955 and a bus built in 2015, other than the 6" taller seats. And what's with that lady saying cars don't last that long? I've been daily driving an '85 Caddy for 2 years and have never had real issues, and my '67 F100. Fixed some minor problems when I got it and it's been just as reliable as a new truck.

[claytonwhitacre]

The oldest bus I’ve rode was an ‘86 Carpenter Ford B700. The oldest bus in our fleet right now is a ‘98 Blue Bird GMC CV200. What people need to realize is, newer buses that have emission controls are very unreliable because the Government is making these emission standards so high to where the diesels are pretty much being choked.

[rocketraccoon]

Safer school buses for the children or tax cuts for the rich & big business?
GOP: Screw the children, those poor millionaires and poor corporations are the real ones hurting!

[askhowiknow]

The ones they were servicing were the new ones!

[MrCliffdard]

An old bus with that AT545 whine is music to my childhood ears.

[carswithswagautomotive]

Wow a school bus uses more fuel than a car. Imagine that.

[kwb]

Man the old chevy b60s with the 366 were pretty damn reliable but the old international idi 7.3 and 9.0 will survive the apocalypse most have well over 1million miles on the original engines these new diesel engines dont stand a chance to these old naturally aspirated idi v8s gutless and sound fantastic but will make you deaf after a while

[cabwaldo]

You can have a 5 year old bus and not maintain it or you can have a 20 year old bus and not maintain it....guess what, brakes still need to be done, air leaks fixed, lights fixed. Spend that money training mechanics to be THOROUGH and COMPETENT or your just gonna be throwing money away buying busses like crazy.

[j-rockwells]

To be honest I'd prefer to drive the older buses them new buses catch 🔥

[jamesbryan]

i work on these buses, sc does not want to spend money on buses.if uknew what i know you won't let tour kids ride the bus

[Chevyc.]

news flash parents the newer buses or more likely to break down then the older ones like the new c2s and the international when they break it's either something electronical or gonna be really hard to find which means you'll have to call the company and 9 times out of 10 they don't know either but the older buses like the fords internationals and Chevy's they can run forever if you treat them right but when they break by God they break and fwi I'm a bus mechanic so I know what I'm talking about and by the way if you still want to run older buses and transfer them into activity buses which will be County owned that way School coaches will have something to draw their ball teams

[ronb]

FUNNY THING TO ME IS THE BUSES THEY SHOW IN THE GARAGES ARE THE NEW ONE'S. THE OLD 87 CHEVY WAS BEING USED AND NOT IN THE SHOP THE NEWER BUSES ARE POS AND I MEAN POS. CAN'T BEAT THE OLD 8.2 DD FROM THE 80'S THEY JUST RUN AND RUN AND GET BETTER MPG THAN THE NEW ONE'S I KNOW I DRIVE THEM AND WORK ON THEM.