INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS LOVING IT Last month, the American School Bus


Council presented an STN webcast in preparation for this month’s Love the Bus activities, now in its fifth year. Te program aims to celebrate the jobs performed each school day by bus drivers and to educate students, parents and educators on the environmental, health and safety benefits of school buses. Last summer, ASBC unveiled its School


Bus Champion program that arms industry professionals with the information nec- essary to spread the school bus message throughout communities, often during ev- ery-day interactions such as during airline travel or while waiting at the DMV. Ten, last month, ASBC released a “top five” list of steps school districts, school bus compa- nies and state directors of transportation can take to ensure the program’s success this month. Transportation directors were asked


to send letters or e-mails to all school principals to give them ideas for Love the Bus events and links for teachers to use in the weeks leading up to Feb. 14, especially for students who ride the


bus. Additional suggestions were to


work with the district’s communications office to create and distribute press re- leases or media information one week prior to Valentine’s Day and to include information on the ASBC Champion program. Transportation directors were also asked to encourage drivers of el- ementary routes to decorate the inside of their buses with Valentine’s greetings or erect a “Love the Bus bulletin board” inside the bus to post children’s notes and drawings. School bus companies were encour-


aged to give their drivers a Love the Bus logo item such as a T-shirt, pin or sticker for them to wear while driving throughout the week. Te companies were also asked to host a driver apprecia- tion event at local terminals, purchase ad space on a billboard near a high traffic area for the week/month thanking the drivers for their service and issue a joint press re- lease to the community press asking the community to recognize school bus driv- ers they see. At the state level, ASBC asked transpor-


Pedestrian Safety and School Buses Around the same time last month as preliminary data was released on the


National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey, President Obama signed into law the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010 to study and establish a federal motor vehicle safety standard that provides a means of alerting blind and other pedestrians of oncoming traffic. While specifics remained unclear at this writing, school buses might be included in the regulation as it applies to manufactured “conventional motor vehicles” that are defined as those pow- ered by internal combustion engines that run on gasoline, diesel or alternative fuels. Ten, InventHelp, a service company placing a new invention in front of industry experts for concept reviews, announced a new product idea for “SCHOOL ALERT,” a device that promised to assist school bus drivers in avoid- ing hitting pedestrians. “After I heard about someone who was run over by a school bus, I realized a


great need for operators to be more aware of their surroundings,” said the in- ventor, whose name was being withheld by InventHelp. “Because school buses sit higher above the road than many other vehicles, it’s no wonder that drivers have a difficult time knowing when someone is right in front of the vehicle.” Crossing gates exist for that very reason, but they are not mandated by the federal government.


Editor’s note — More information on the new product concept can be obtained from Gia DelliGatti at InventHelp at (800) 424-2089 ext. 4163.


14 School Transportation News Magazine February 2011


tation directors to blast e-mails to all local directors encouraging them to participate and to create a Web page specific to each state’s Love the Bus activities. Te state directors were also asked to coordinate a state official riding the school bus and to notify the media, to personally get involved in a Love the Bus event and make an offi- cial announcement or proclamation about Love the Bus week, and to host a webinar or post a video explaining to districts what they can do and why it is important.


Ten there are opportunities for all such


as hosting a driver appreciation night or other school event with the local school administration, the PTA and students to thank drivers, providing teachers with les- son plans, posting notices on marquees outside of school campuses, and utilizing social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to spread the word.


SHUT UP AND DRIVE Te Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administra-


tion published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would ban the use of all hand-held cell phones by commercial vehicle drivers and in- terstate bus drivers. According to the NPRM, “Drivers of CMVs: Restricting the Use of Cellular Phones,” using a hand-held device while driving can pose a higher safety risk than other activities, like eating, because “it involves all four types of driver distraction” — visual, manual, cognitive and auditory. Te NPRM would prohibit com- mercial vehicle drivers, including school bus drivers that engage in interstate travel, from “reaching for, holding, or dialing a mobile tele- phone.” Te driver must be ready to make a call before he starts driving. School bus transporta- tion that crosses state lines for the purpose of home to school (or vice versa) transportation is exempt. Initial comments on the NPRM are due on or before Feb. 22, 2011, with reply comments due on or before March 21, 2011.


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