Wake Homeowner No Longer In Rut Over Repairs

Terry Kelly prefers to see the school bus backing up and not driving off the pavement, creating ruts and tire tracks in the ground.

Kelly said buses have done so for years and he usually fixes the damage himself.

"I'm just getting tired of repairing all of this," he said.

After September, he said the situation got a bit more serious.

"I think what happened, when she realized she was going too far off the road, she tried to correct it. You can see the tire marks up there. And then in the process, she tried backing out and in the process the bus just slid back into the trees," he said.

Kelly immediately called Wake County Public Schools and was told it would take care of the repairs. When it did not, Kelly kept calling.

"This has been the situation -- call, and then I would be promised 'Oh it will be repaired, it will be repaired,' and I wait a couple of weeks and nothing would happen," he said.

In the meantime, Kelly put out rocks to keep buses from driving off the pavement and causing more damage.

When the ruts still were not fixed after three months, Kelly called Five on Your Side.

After calling Wake County Public Schools, a regional transportation manager promised to take care of it. A month later, nothing had changed. Then Five On Your Side called Vernon Hatley, the senior director of transportation for the school system.

Within a couple of days the ruts were repaired. Kelly said that was all he wanted.

"Get this area repaired and get something done so that the buses will stay on the cul-de-sac instead of off the road," he said.

Hatley said bus drivers will try to keep the buses on the pavement and if there is damage again, it will be fixed. He blamed the holdup on figuring out who would make the repairs -- the state Department of Transportation or Wake County Schools.

The DOT said the rocks Kelly put out are not allowed because they create a hazard. They have been removed.