The Guardia Urbana in the city of Granada has the task, amongst others, of keeping an eye on the 60 school buses that operate in the city… and there is never a dull moment.

To give an example, during 2010 they fined the same bus four times for having defective or worn tyres. Quite apart from the safety of their charges, you would have thought that it would have been cheaper for the said bus owner to buy new ones, no?

In fact, last year they handed out 41 fines, 17 of which were for serious offences, i.e. dangerous driving or vehicle conditions, and not just paperwork deficiencies. But as we are mentioning missing paperwork, two of the school buses didn’t have any passenger insurance. Two other buses didn’t have any seat belts in the passenger seats. Another two – this is starting to sound like Noah’s ark – were fined for carrying more school children than permitted, and finally one was fined for being over 15-years old, which is considered the working-life limit for school transport.

Mind you, 2011 has been pretty uneventful compared with 2010 as there has only been one serious fine – for overloading, which could set the driver back up to 200 euros.

Things have quietened down since the turbulent days of 1999, when not one school bus had the obligatory municipal licence. 2008, was fun, mind you, as that year they intercepted six pirate buses – nobody was forced to walk the plank, however. These buses belonged to bona-fide transport companies, but ones which didn’t have the special licence that allows them to transport school children.

Mind you, more than one of the poor sods that drive those mobile lunatic asylums would quite happily have driven off a cliff, screaming Hallelujah.

(News: Metropolitan Granada, Granada, Andalucia)