After an NBC 5 Responds investigation into uninsured school buses on Illinois roads, a lawmaker is aiming to crack down on violators of state law, as PJ Randhawa explains.
Last month an NBC 5 Responds investigation revealed no state agency is keeping track of whether school buses in Illinois undergo their required semi-annual safety inspections, and our reporting led to a fleet of uninsured school buses being taken off the road, with the owner of that bus company now facing charges.
Disturbed by the results of our investigation, a state lawmaker is pledging to take action and update Illinois' law.
NBC 5 Responds' investigation started after a Calumet City man, hit by an uninsured school bus, contacted us for help with his insurance claim last August.
As we tried to find out how this school bus was allowed to operate without insurance, we learned two important facts along the way: First, in Illinois, school buses are only required to show proof of insurance every two years in order to operate. Second, even though state law requires school buses to undergo safety inspections every six months or 10,000 miles, no state agency is keeping track of the bus companies that don’t comply.
The result? Our investigation found a fleet of Culvers Transportation school buses was able to operate for more than 10 years without routine state safety inspections. And for at least six months, the company was transporting Chicago public and private school students on uninsured buses.
"I think we've got to send a strong message after this report that we're going to have 0 tolerance for putting our children at risk," said Illinois State Rep. Marcus Evans.
Rep. Evans says he was angered by what we discovered about school bus oversight and safety in Illinois.
NBC 5 Responds
"We've got to make sure we send a message to everybody that the safety of our children is a top priority. And I don't think that's the case right now because of all of the work that you've done kind of opening this up, exposing this, action is going to happen," said Rep. Evans.
The Illinois Department of Transportation told NBC 5 Responds last month that it doesn't have the power to fine school bus operators who skip those required safety inspections. IDOT says that's the job of law enforcement. However, the agency admits it doesn't alert law enforcement about uninspected or dangerous school buses that may be on the road either.
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While IDOT may not have records for Culvers inspections, we wanted to know if they tracked how often other school bus companies were being inspected. But we hit another wall. IDOT says it doesn't keep logs of how often school buses are being inspected - period.
We asked Rep. Evans if school bus companies that choose to skip routine safety inspections should face a penalty, or action from IDOT.
"Without question, and that should be a serious message sent," Evans said. "The company should not be able to operate. And if they do something like this company did, which is just totally disregard the regulations that the entire company should be shut down. The message has got to be sent after this."
Evans says he's now working on legislation to close what he calls gaps in state oversight of school buses.
"People assume that these buses are safe," Evans said. "And I think it's unfair for us with the public trust to not know for fact. So we definitely need more inspections done, and we definitely need more certainty on insurance. And that's a policy piece that we can address."
Evans says he's now working with the Secretary of State to draft legislation, which he plans to file in the 2025 legislative session.
"I'm going to be pushing hard. That'll be one of my definite for the new session of priorities," he said.
Sheri Culver, the owner of Culvers Transportation, was charged with several misdemeanors related to the operation of her school buses last month. When we spoke to Culver in December, she told us all her buses were now off the road. Evans tells us he's begun drafting his bill, but the timeline for introduction to the legislature is unclear.
