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NHTSA NPRM Seeks Direction on Use of Back-Up Cameras for Small School Buses


By Ryan Gray With EPA clean engine requirements having increased the


purchase price of new larger school buses by some $20,000 to $25,000 over the last several years, could smaller Type A buses be on a similar road? Tat’s a concern of some transportation professionals after the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis- tration announced its intention in early December to mandate that small school buses and school vans undergo changes with respect to vision systems. Te small school vehicles join passenger cars, trucks, MPVs


and “low-speed vehicles rated at 10,000 pounds or less” in gross vehicle weight under a NHTSA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would expand the required view at the rear of the vehicles to allow drivers to better see pedestrians. Te NPRM seeks to revise FMVSS 111 because, as NHTSA notes, an average of 292 fatalities and 18,000 injuries occur as the result of back over crashes. And small children and senior citizens are those who are most often hit at the rear of vehicles. NHTSA did admit, however, that it was unable to determine if


there were back-over incidents involving school buses or school vans. Still, the agency said one way to improve the sight of driv- ers, especially when backing up, is to require camera systems or other technology that show the entire area around the rear of the vehicles. Te public comment period on the NPRM was set to expire on Feb. 7. “Te school bus industry has been slower to adopt backing


18 School Transportation News Magazine February 2011


cameras, as the perception of the past was school buses don’t back up,” said Dave McDonald, director of business development and technical sales at Rosco Vision Systems. “We all know that in reality there are many situations where backing is necessary, and Rosco has been a leader in advocating these types of cameras in school buses.” Te company introduced its “bus with no mirrors” concept


at NAPT in 2008 that relied only on video cameras positioned inside and around the bus to display virtually all of the same “danger zone” areas as normal rear-view and cross-over mirrors. Te vehicle remains a concept because FMVSS 111 still requires all vehicles to have physical mirrors, but it shows the potential safety benefits that back-up cameras could offer. Currently, FMVSS 111 mandates that the inside mirrors have


a field of view of at least 20 degrees wide and external, side rear- view mirrors that offer “a sufficient vertical angle to provide a view of a level road surface extending to the horizon beginning not more than 200 feet behind the vehicle.” School buses also must meet more stringent mirror requirements such as having two external outside mirrors as well as standards for adjust- ing the mirrors. Te full school bus regulation can be found at www.stnonline.com/go/765. From the 2005-2006 through 2009-2010 school years, the Na-


tional Loading and Unloading Zone surveys compiled by the Kansas State Department of Education show there have been 17 student fatalities at the rear of school buses compared to 13 fatali- ties reported at the front of the vehicles. Without having specifics at this writing, a spokesperson for KSDE’s School Bus Safety Unit that is responsible for generating the report said that most chil- dren killed at the rear of the bus were not the result of the vehicle backing up. Instead, as the survey indicates, most students killed at the rear were late to the bus and were running after it. So would the additional expense of a new requirement be the


best use of money? “More unfunded mandates from the federal government,”


commented Brian J. Whitta, transportation director at Bowl- ing Green City School District in Ohio, on STN’s Facebook page. “With all of the regulations and ‘recommendations’ they impose upon us, we’ll hit $100,000 on the small buses before long, too.”


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