INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
Feds Roll Out New Bullying Training Following a “promise” last fall at the NAPT Summit by Kevin
Jennings, who recently stepped down as the assistant deputy sec- retary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) at the U.S. Department of Education, a new training program aimed at reducing the incidents of bullying on the school bus is now available. Te training was created by NAPT, OSDFS and the Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center. It consists of two modules, “See Something. Do Something: Intervening in Bullying Behavior” and “Creating a Supportive Bus Climate.” Although aimed at bus drivers, the training can provide insight
into the problem for educators, administrators and parents alike. Te program will teach what bullying is and is not, and what it looks like on a school bus, as well as allow trainees to explore and share ideas for responding to bullying, become equipped with strategies to address and report bullying incidents. It is free of charge for public school districts or school bus contractors. An overview of the modules was presented at the STN EXPO.
Navistar Study Shows Gains in EGR Fluid Economy
Navistar commissioned a study by Transportation Research
Center, Inc., that shows Advanced EGR technology offers a return on investment that goes beyond fuel savings. Te report released in June says fluid economy is the best way to show the effective- ness and cost savings related to 2010 emissions technology. Te combination of the amount of diesel fuel used and the liquid urea shows a 4.5 percent advantage over SCR, according to the report. A five-page paper (
www.stnonline.com/go/823) also report-
ed that the MaxxForce 7 engine could also offer a fluid-economy advantage of between 0.5 and 1.5 percent by using TMC Type IV testing methods, which closely replicates real-world fuel economy. Te buses were all equipped with the same Goodyear tire mod-
els and sizes, exhaust and Allison 2500PTS five-speed transmission. Vehicle test weights were all roughly 25,000 pounds. Differences besides the engines included the alternators (320 amp 12V for IC Bus compared to 200 amp 12V for Blue Bird and 240 amp 12V for Tomas Built Buses) and fuel tank size (65 gallons for IC Bus com- pared to 100 gallons for both Blue Bird and Tomas). “Tese testing scenarios are purposely designed to create as
close to real-world, on-the-road applications as possible, with no attention to detail spared,” said John McKinney, president of IC Bus. “Te test results confirm our commitment to our customers to deliver the most efficient buses on the road.” But competitors utilizing SCR refute the findings. “Validity of the testing and published results is questionable,”
said Tomas R. Hodek, GM of bus business at Cummins. “Cum- mins is fully confident that with the correct customer powertrain specifications, the fuel economy of the EPA 2010 ISB6.7 in a Tomas Built or Blue Bird bus can be significantly better than that of the MaxxForce 7 in an IC bus.”
14 School Transportation News Magazine August 2011
Download new bullying intervention and response training for school bus drivers at
www.stnonline.com/go/826.
NHTSA: School Buses Are the Safest Places During Crashes
Research by NHTSA covering fatal crashes occurring between
2000 and 2009 shows that a total of 1,386 people have died in school transportation-related crashes, or an average of 139 fa- talities per year. Occupants of school transportation vehicles accounted for only 8 percent of these fatalities, and pedestrians and bicyclists accounted for 20 percent. Te report defines school transportation-related crashes as di-
rectly or indirectly involving a school bus transporting students to or from school or school-related activities. Also included in the report are non-school buses functioning as a school bus, such as a multi-function school activity bus or school van. Nearly three-quarters of the deaths, 72 percent to be exact, oc-
curred in other vehicles. Te results back up previously reported data that an average of 19 school-age occupants of school trans- portation vehicles die each year, six inside the school bus and 13 outside pedestrians. Te findings are part of NHTSA’s latest Traffic Safety Facts,
which were published this past March. Pedestrians between the ages of 5 and 7 were the second largest segment, with 56 pe- destrian fatalities behind people 19 years of age and older (238 deaths). Overall, since 2000, 67 percent of the 130 school-age pedestrians were struck by school buses, with 6 percent by re- lated vehicles, and 27 percent by other vehicles involved in the accidents. For 2009 alone, there was a total of four crashes involving stu-
dent transportation vehicles and five resulting fatalities. NHTSA recorded one single-vehicle, school-bus crash that year that resulted in one fatality. Meanwhile, there were two crashes in- volving school buses and at least one other vehicle that resulted in two fatalities. For more, visit
www.stnonline.com/go/825.
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