FIRST TAKE
Industry Veteran Discusses Current Technology as He Prepares to Tackle New Challenge
Last month, Ron Lampartner effectively left stu-
dent transportation after 51 years, during which time he founded Transpec Worldwide in 1972 and sold the company in 2007 to Specialty Manufacturing. Two years later, in 2009, he and associate Pat Green formed M2K LLC, which acquired Syntec Inc. from Tachi-S Co., Ltd., a Japanese automotive-seat engineering firm. Tat trans- action gave birth to school bus seat and seat-belt manufacturer Syntec Seating Solutions, with M2K being one of the models offered. In July, SynTec Seating was acquired outright by Takata USA, which had
By Ryan Gray
ryan@stnonline.com
Publisher: Tony Corpin Editor: Ryan Gray
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been a 50-50 partner with M2K LLC for the past several years. Te deal means that even more financial and R&D resources are being earmarked for school bus occupant protection. Lampartner, meanwhile, has moved on to tackle another passion: pro-
tecting the lives of U.S. soldiers who drive and ride in military vehicles. He said perhaps only this passenger segment is as precious as the nearly 500,000 students who ride in school buses. Following Takata USA’s announcement, I had a chance to speak with
Lampartner. Our conversation centered on technology, an apropos topic for this month’s focus, and what the innovations mean to school bus safety. We discussed some of the new products on the market, especially the rise in school bus stop-arm cameras, and solutions for detecting children in the “danger zone.” I also shared with him a presentation made at the STN EXPO in July by Shmuel Bollen, a cognitive researcher who is challenging the school bus industry to rethink school bus lettering that has been used for the better part of 80 years. Here’s some of what Lampartner shared: “Tere is so much technology today that is available. It’s in high-volume
production for the auto and pick-up truck industries. You don’t need to spend an arm and a leg to develop new technology that will enhance the safety of school buses. All you need to do is adapt technology to school buses that is already out there. “I think there’s the opportunity for innovative suppliers, and incidentally
for the school bus industry, to take on the technology that’s already there. All the school bus industry has to do is pick it up and adapt it to school bus use. “Part of the problem is there are so many specifications in the school
bus industry: local specs, state specs, national specs. Te problem isn’t that they were bad specs, it’s that new technology now is available. Tere are so many specs, and it’s so difficult to get an old spec changed. It’s very frustrat- ing when you see brand-new technology that you know is better than the technology that prompted the spec that was written 20 years ago. But you just can’t get it incorporated.” As Lampartner moves on, it should surprise no one that his blood “will forever flow yellow.” ■
Contributing Editors: Contributing Editors:
Linda Bluth, Peggy Burns, Michelle Fisher, John Whelan, Dick Fischer, Denny Coughlin, Ned Einstein, Glen Moyer, Art Gissendaner, Anson Stewart, Shanna Thompson Zareski
Linda Bluth, Peggy Burns, Michelle Fisher, John Whelan, Dick Fischer, Denny Coughlin, Ned Einstein, Glen Moyer, Art Gissendaner, Anson Stewart, Shanna Thompson Zareski
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Denny Coughlin, Consultant; Judith Dupille, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles; Dick Fischer, Trans-Consult; Ron Love, Delaware DOE; Randy McLerran, National Bus Sales; Pete Meslin, Newport-Mesa Unified; Nancy Netherland, Migrant-Seasonal Head Start; R arshall Casey, Consultant; Alexandra Robinson, NAPT; Launi Schmutz, Washington County Schools
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8 School Transportation News Magazine September 2012
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