“We look at the brake linings, the lights, the wheel chair lifts, the fluid levels, the belts, check for leaks,” Brown said.
BY NANCY COOK LAUER
WEST HAWAII TODAY
ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com
HILO — Many of Hawaii County’s public buses have been driven around the island for the past month with expired state inspection stickers, but Mass Transit Administrator Tom Brown says the buses are perfectly safe.
Brown and state Department of Transportation spokesman Dan Meisenzahl say the county buses are exempt from laws governing fleet inspections. Instead, said Brown, the county Mass Transit mechanics inspect the buses monthly.
“We do the checks every month and the drivers also do a pre-ride checklist every day,” Brown said. “If there are any issues, we don’t run any unfit buses.”
The county is self-insured, so any serious wrecks could end up costing taxpayers millions. The county has about 50 buses on the road, with three or four at the baseyard out of service for maintenance and repairs at any given time.
Brown first said the stickers weren’t needed, then said the stickers had been updated on the buses. But when told Wednesday that all the buses spotted at the Hilo Bus Station on Tuesday were bearing expired stickers, he amended his comment, saying the buses had been inspected and the stickers were available, but they may not have yet been applied to all the buses.
If the state doesn’t inspect the vehicles, do the DOT stickers give riders and motorists a false sense of security? Not necessarily, said Brown.
“We do it as an additional step,” Brown said, adding that the stickers cost just $1.50 per bus each year.
The department annually purchases the stickers from DOT and submits forms to the state agency certifying that an inspection has been done.
There is one DOT employee on each of the neighbor islands in charge of fleet inspections and about 10 on Oahu.
The state doesn’t verify the inspections, Meisenzahl said.
“They do file paperwork basically saying they’re conducting the inspections they’re supposed to,” Meisenzahl said. “If it’s ever shown they don’t do the inspections, then they would be disqualified from the (self-inspection) program.”
Brown said the county’s monthly inspections are very thorough; as thorough as the state’s annual inspection requirements for private fleet vehicles.
“We look at the brake linings, the lights, the wheel chair lifts, the fluid levels, the belts, check for leaks,” Brown said.