INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
THE NEXT LEVEL WHEN A CUSTOMER REQUESTED ADDITIONAL SAFETY FEATURES, CHILD CHECK-MATE RESPONDED TO THE CALL BY TEAMING WITH ZONAR TO CREATE A MORE COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION
WRITTEN BY MICHELLE FISHER
developed by Child Check-Mate and Zonar Systems just for them, there really is no excuse. Child Check-Mate developed multiple safety checks, including a unique alarm system, for sleeping or unseen children left behind on a school bus. By connecting the Child Check-Mate System to Zonar, operators can now easily verify the system is active. Te system also features motion sensors that can detect when the
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child gets up and moves about the bus. Even if the vehicle is turned off, the system’s Double Check feature will turn on the interior lights, speak to the child and activate Zonar, sending real-time alerts to managers so they can respond quickly. Te motion detection sensors helped draw attention to a 6-year- old student with special needs who was left behind on a Suffolk Transportation school van May 2 because the driver failed to do a proper post-trip check. Te boy had fallen asleep on the way home from school. Tomas McAteer, executive vice president of Suffolk Transpor-
tation, told a local news station the company has a zero-tolerance policy for this type of failure, which is why they immediately termi- nated the driver. Tommy Smith, director of school bus operations at Suffolk
Transportation, which serves 17 school districts on New York’s Long Island, said the company asked Child Check-Mate to up- grade the EP1 system and make it “failsafe.” He credited Brad Both, Child Check-Mate’s director of business development, for taking the lead on this project and getting it done in six months. “We put together everything we wanted, and it became a reality.
We built custom programming for what Suffolk Transportation need- ed. It’s a different product than for other customers,” Smith noted. Now, he said all of the drivers appreciate the new technology
and feel they are better protected because of how it works with the Zonar GPS that’s installed on every bus. “We wanted to take it to the next level. Sometimes children can
even end up sleeping under the seat. You really have to search the vehicle,” said Smith. “We provided this extra technology so if there is a mistake caused by human error, we’ll know about it fast.”
ADDED VALUE — AND CARE
Smith explained the various steps involved in notification, start- ing with the sensor that “marks” the child, activating the bus alarm and flashing lights. Te system then instructs the child to sit down and tells him or her that help is on the way. “Te other piece we’re proud of is that it pushes a signal to GPS that goes to our smartphones and to our e-mail addresses, telling us
18 School Transportation News June 2014
£ The Child Check-Mate System, above, fits conveniently in the front of a small school bus at Suffolk Transportation.
where the bus is and that it has a motion alert. It tells us right away if there is a problem,” he added. Both said working with Zonar for the past year has been an
“extremely positive” experience for everyone involved. “Tey’ve been very responsive to us and to our mutual customers.
Because of the overlap in our customer bases, it makes good sense for us to work together. Te customers who use Zonar are customers who are really interested in closely monitoring the effectiveness of their policies and systems,” Both shared. “I think it brings a lot of added value to our product.” Since the initial press release went out, he said the response has
been “intense,” far exceeding their expectations. Many of their larger customers want to know how Child Check-Mate and Zonar, together, can better meet their needs. And this particular need is great, he stressed.
Both said he finds it surprising how often children are left behind
on the school bus, especially students with special needs who often have an attendant on board as well. “Te number of incidences where there are both a driver and a
monitor is staggering. It must be a situation when one thinks the other one has checked,” he continued. “Te nice thing with the Zonar system is you can check that the driver is not only doing the check but also doing it at the proper location. You can set it up to see if (drivers) did a check too fast or if they didn’t check the vehicle thoroughly.” Added Both: “If you have those Zonar reports, you can tell the
school board, parents and others, ‘Here is the activity report and here is the level of compliance: 99 percent of drivers check their vehicles after their routes within five minutes.’ And in the unlikely event that they miss a child, we have something set up to minimize that risk.” l
he folks at Suffolk Transportation Service think there is no excuse for leaving a child behind on a school bus at the end of a route, a sentiment echoed industry wide. Now, thanks to a new customized child-check solution
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