INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS: BRIEFS
Wisconsin Law Changes School Bus Lighting Specs, Clarifies Use of Lights at Stops
to meet current state standards for exterior lights. Assembly Bill 281 removed the
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requirement that bus companies buy only from vendors that offer Wisconsin-legal buses with lighting configurations that were “out of sync” with federal requirements. Otherwise, the bus companies had to manually cut wires, remove light bulbs and change lenses on their own to comply with state law. Last summer, Rep. Keith Ripp
stated on the Assembly floor that it was unlawful for Wisconsin to operate newly built buses with the lighting package installed by the vehicle OEM at the factory. As a result, school bus companies and school districts had to purchase older models of buses that met the state-specific rules. “Tis can cause a safety issue because the models are not as up-to-date and more prone to
breakage,” he added. “Tis bill simply brings Wisconsin law in line with federal regulations.” Te new law also mandates that school bus drivers traveling in a zone with a posted speed limit of 45 mph or greater must activate the amber warning lights at least 300 feet before stop- ping, and in lower-speed zones, at least 100 feet before stopping. When the bus is fully stopped, the amber lights are to be deactivated and the flashing red
warning lights engaged as students begin loading or unloading. After all students have entered or exited the bus, and completed crossing the road, drivers are then required to turn off the flashing red lights. Buses equipped with only red flashing lights and the flashing white strobe will still activate the lights in the way prescribed under current law.
BUS DRIVER, AIDE DISMISSED AFTER LEAVING DISABLED TEEN ON THE BUS ALL DAY
morning, and the driver discovered her at the end of the school day. According to officials, the bus remained parked in the school parking lot the entire day. School staff gave the dehydrated student fluids and checked her vital signs before taking her home. Te following Monday both the bus driver and aide, who were employees of the district and
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bus contractor First Student, were dismissed. “Today the Department’s area director started a full inquiry into the incident to determine
exactly what happened and whether there were any other employees involved,” stated the De- partment. “Te supervisor and the building administrator will evaluate the procedures used for taking attendance and checking students into and out of the school each day.” Te girl’s parents said their daughter’s wheelchair had been unlatched, but after that, she was
apparently forgotten. Tey were concerned that without the chair restrained, their daughter — who suffers from seizures — could have hit her head or seriously injured herself.
32 School Transportation News March 2014
2 Clean Fleet Shows – 1 Location The 2014 Alternative Clean Transpor- tation (ACT) Expo will co-locate with the 14th biennial NGV Global Con- ference and Expo at the Long Beach Convention Center in California May 5–8. Visit
www.actexpo.com for the agenda and registration info.
wo staff members at the Lakeview Woods State School in Lee’s Summit, Mo., were fired after a disabled 19-year-old student was left behind on a school bus Jan. 10, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Te bus driver and aide left the nonverbal student in a wheelchair on the bus in the
new law enacted in December reversed a previous requirement that Wisconsin school bus companies retrofit older buses
NHTSA TEST OF CRS EXCLUDES HARNESSES, SCHOOL BUSES
Te National Highway Traffic Safe-
ty Administration published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for the first-ever side impact crash test of child restraint systems (CRS) designed for children weighing up to 40 pounds in passenger vehicles. Published Jan. 22 in the Feder- al Register, the NPRM satisfies a congressional mandate in the MAP-21 transportation reauthorization passed in 2012. It seeks to upgrade FMVSS 213 in order to reduce crash forces to a child’s head and chest during a T-Bone crash. It does not, however, apply to harnesses or to school buses, as the sled test proposed is “significantly different” from a school bus side-impact crash environment, as it is designed for a small passenger car. NHTSA said side impacts are espe-
cially dangerous when the impact hits the passenger compartment. Unlike a front- or rear-end crash, there are no substantial, crushable metal struc- tures between the occupant and the impacting vehicle or object. Te door collapses into the passenger compart- ment and the occupants contact the door relatively quickly after the crash at a high relative velocity. Child restraints would be tested with a newly developed, instru- mented side-impact test dummy, the Q3, which represents a 3-year-old child, along with a well-established 12-month-old child test dummy, the Child Restraint Air Bag Interaction (CRABI) dummy. If finalized, a rule would take effect
in three years.
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