THE VALUE It is ironic to me that Charlie Hood and I
helped develop this national count when my own state’s annual count originated solely as a result of Hood’s 1996 NAPT presentation. He shared the results of the industry-first statewide one-day stop arm violation count conducted by the Center for Urban Trans- portation Research in Florida.
I was a new state director at the time, and
when I heard this I thought, “Hey! I’m sup- posed to go back to my state and do this, too!” Fueled by a near miss at a school bus stop in Davidson County, we began our an- nual statewide count in 1997. Several other states do annual counts as well and, for us, joining in with the NASDPTS count was a natural extension of existing efforts.
I remain convinced that our strongest
weapon against stop-arm violations is education. Even enforcement measures — fines, penalties, cameras, etc. — have value only if people learn about it and decide to drive differently. Motorists’ be- havior must change to improve student safety around the school bus. Te value of the data is to serve as a
springboard to have the conversation with transportation directors, schools, PTA’s and, most importantly, with the me- dia. Any occasion where we can attract the media (back to school, national school bus safety week, Love the Bus) provides us an opportunity to remind the public that we need their help in protecting children around the school bus. Pointing to local, state or national data
regarding stop-arm violations helps us to be- gin this conversion with the question: “Did you know that a motorist illegally passes a stopped school bus XX times every day?”
❝ Te data point
to more than 76 million vehicles il- legally passing a stopped school bus each school year. ❞
THE CHARGE Please consider conducting, or con-
tinuing to conduct, a one-day stop arm violation count in your school district or operation. Even if you haven’t or can’t, please use the NASDPTS data to ask the motoring public for their help in keeping kids safe! ■
Derek Graham is state director of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. He can be contacted at derek.
graham@dpi.nc.gov.
52 School Transportation News Magazine September 2012
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