CLEVELAND – A television news investigation revealed the overwhelming majority of Ohio school buses fail annual safety inspections, likely due to differences in how the vehicles are maintained.

ABC 5 conducted an exclusive investigation into the results of mandatory annual bus inspections conducted by the Ohio State Highway Patrol by looking at records for the 20 largest school district in the state.

The results show that out of 1,300 buses, 418 received “Out of Service” violations, the most serious category that requires repairs to important functions like brakes, tires, turn signals or horns. In all, 61 percent of the buses reviewed failed the annual inspection on the first attempt, despite a two-month warning to make repairs.

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“Even so, our investigation found only one school district – Perry Local Schools in Massillon – passed annual inspection with zero safety violations,” according to the news site. “All 55 buses showed up for inspection in perfect working order – not even a minor violation.”

“For my mechanics, it’s an all-year-long process – maintaining our buses for safety standards throughout the year,” Perry bus manager Mitzi Wagner said.

Many other districts fared far worse.

At Solon City Schools, only six of 65 buses passed, and 25 were cited with “Out of Service” violations, while only seven of 79 Berea City Schools buses made the grade. A total of 31 of the Berea City buses were pulled from the road, ABC 5 reports.

The pass rate for Cleveland schools was 26 percent. Other districts with poor pass rates included East Cleveland schools at 12 percent, Hudson schools at 15 percent, Parma with 16 percent, Shaker Heights with 21 percent, and Brunswick at 21 percent.

“There was a problem in our drivers reporting properly to our mechanics,” Solon superintendent Joseph Regan told the news site.

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Other officials made similar excuses or vowed to fix the problem.

Berea superintendent Michael Sheppard simply stated the obvious.

“If there needs to be some changes in our procedures to closer to that 100 percent mark than we should be doing that,” he said.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Eleazar Rivera told ABC 5 the number of school buses that “actually show up and pass the first time around” is “probably less than 5 percent” statewide.

Eleazar assured the news site buses that fail inspections are not allowed back on the road until they’re re-inspected, and said all of the hundreds of buses that failed this year are now safe to transport students.

Several commenters online we’re clearly not impressed with the news.

“I hope someone is put on notice this is NOT acceptable to play Russian roulette with children’s lives,” Carmen Johnson-Grubbs posted.

“I wonder how our school did. Now I dread putting my kid on the bus,” Sue Kowatch. “There is no excuse for this at all.”

Robin Dalton agreed.

“For the taxes we pay and our trust in our children getting to school safely, why on earth weren’t these buses overhauled while the children were on their summer recess,” Dalton wrote. “No excuses for this at all.”

Others, like Ralph Siebert, are frustrated school officials didn’t own up to their failures.

“It doesn’t surprise me that superintendent … Regan would blame the drivers!” he posted.