School Bus Safety Priority 1 In N.J. Following Tragic Summer

ORANGE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- In time for the start of school, there has been a ramping up of school bus inspections in New Jersey. It marks an accelerated push following a summer of tragedies that led to a new law signed last weekend.

Alexander Sagrista and other Department of Motor Vehicles inspectors go from bus to bus statewide, with checklists for 180 safety issues.

"If there are broken shocks are the brakes are bad," Sagrista said demonstrating on one bus. "In here is a seat belt cutter. If you have to cut them right away you have this right here."

One violation out of the 180 possible will sideline a bus, until the fix is made.

"This is very personal to every one of us," said Sue Fulton of the Motor Vehicle Commission.

Overturned school buses in the Garden State became a theme this summer. We saw it on the New Jersey Turnpike in Cherry Hill on June 29 and then on the Turnpike near East Brunswick on Aug. 11. Luckily, no one was killed in either incident.

But in Mount Olive on May 17 a student and a teacher died. The 77-year-old bus driver was charged with vehicular homicide.

MORE: Lawmakers Make Renewed Push For Bus Safety In Wake Of Deadly Mount Olive Crash

"Are we looking at this extra hard? We absolutely are," Fulton said.

"It's unfortunate that it took an accident of that nature to finally get people to talk and say we need to do something," Washington Township resident Yolanda Melendez added.

A new law means three-point seat belts with across-the-shoulder protection must be phased in. They are mandatory on new buses in New Jersey.

That change for new school buses is one thing, but what about the older ones? CBS2's Carlin asked why not retrofit those so they also have three-point seat belts?

"It's actually extremely difficult to properly retrofit a bus so it remains safe," Fulton said. "To retrofit a lap belt bus to a shelter belt bus you pretty much have to rip out the inside of the bus and rebuild it."

Fulton said one-third of New Jersey school buses have the three-point belts, a number that will grow over coming years as districts are urged to buy new buses instead of trying to add the belts to old ones.