SAN DIEGO -- As a pedestrian, a bus rider, or any other driver on the road, it's comforting to know San Diego Transit Corp. has your safety in mind.

It's the manager of safety's job to oversee transit drivers' records.

But the 10News Investigations team has learned there were cracks within the system.

There were drivers that shouldn't have been driving.

"If there is a discrepancy, they should have contacted me right then and not allowed me to go out there and drive that bus," said Sylvia, a former San Diego Transit Corp. bus driver.

But these drivers, who wish to have their identities hidden, were allowed to continue their routes for years even though they were flagged by the Department of Motor Vehicles with Restriction Code 68 -- "Disqualified from driving commercially."

Ex-SDTC bus driver J.C. said, "The people who are responsible for maintaining safety of the public as well as making sure that I'm qualified are not doing their job at all."

Once a year or whenever a discrepancy arises on a bus driver's record, the DMV issues a pull notice to San Diego Transit. It is a record designed to alert the company if an employee has a restriction or issue with their license.

Sylvia and J.C. said they were both unknowingly driving with disqualified licenses for a number of years. Yet a pull notice was sent to their employer and supposedly reviewed, signed and dated by San Diego Transit safety manager Bundy Sarmiento as required by DMV code.

However, the drivers kept driving.

The 10News Investigations team asked to speak with Sarmiento, but Paul Jablonski, CEO of San Diego Transit's parent company, MTS, answered on his behalf. Jablonski said Sarmiento simply failed to look through the reports thoroughly.

"Unfortunately, there was a second page to this report," said Jablonski.

However, the I-Team found the same restriction code on the front page and wondered how that was missed.

Investigations reporter Steve Atkinson said to Jablonski, "It's on the front page."

"At the time, (restriction) 68 was a brand new code," said Jablonski.

Atkinson asked, "Brand new? How old?"

"As in brand new, it was a brand new code," said Jablonski.

10News checked with the DMV and the department said that the code has been in place since the late 1980s.

Jablonski tried to tell 10News the only reason they noticed the code on the pull notice is because of their research.

"You did it when you were looking for something specific," Jablonski said.

Atkinson replied, "Certainly."

"Yeah, and that's how you found out," said Jablonski.

"I don't get paid to look for something specific. Your safety director gets paid to look for something specific," said Atkinson.

Jablonski said, "Well, if we can look at 5 to 600 of these things, and it's probably more like 800 a year, and he misses one."

However, the safety manager did not miss just once with the drivers in question -- he missed a lot.

"For five years, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles, I had been driving with a red flag," said J.C.

10News also obtained licenses of three other transit drivers who at the time, according to DMV code, were driving buses "without airbrake certification." Those drivers should not have been driving a bus either.

10News asked for pull notices of other transit employees. They wanted to know if these drivers were isolated cases.

However, the request was denied by attorneys representing San Diego Transit.

10News asked Jablonski for the same thing, a history of pull notices.

Jablonski said, "As soon as we get one of these reports, we are required to shred the previous ones."

With no history to chase, there is no way to tell how widespread the problem is.

Sylvia and J.C. provided 10News with "reinstatement letters" from the DMV. They were eventually cleared to drive after updating their medical certificates.

But San Diego Transit said it was too late. Citing state law, the company fired both drivers.

There is also a law that says any employer who allows an employee to continue driving with a disqualified license can be punished by a $1,000 fine, six months in jail or both.

When 10News asked Jablonski if the safety manager in question was still employed, he said, "Sure he is. He does a great job, an excellent job."

The California Highway Patrol Safety Unit audits and reviews the pull notice program for San Diego Transit.

"There certainly is some liability on the part of the carrier when they put a disqualified or unqualified driver behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle," said Wayne Hartwig of the CHP Safety Unit.

San Diego Transit provided 10News with their safety records and said the company is more user-friendly, and their buses are safer to ride in than they were five years ago.

But 10News confirmed the CHP investigated the pull notice program of San Diego Transit and the Investigations team will follow-up once that investigation is complete.