SK: CVSA believes there are a number of partnerships that can
and need to be established in the area of driver and vehicle truck and bus safety. No one has all the answers. Tis is particularly true with school buses, which are carrying our most precious cargo and are the safest form of transportation. A number of our mem- bers are conducting school bus inspections now, both those used for commercial reasons as well as for public purposes. We know we don’t have all the answers, but we are hopeful that given the experience we have had over the years we can share this with the school bus industry to maintain, and where possible, help to further enhance the already safe operations of school buses. We also know we can learn from others, which is a primary goal of CVSA – to maintain an environment to share knowledge and best practices for safety. Since the motor carrier safety regula- tions and CVSA inspections are developed and carried out based on safety data and performance (i.e. what items are most likely to contribute to a crash), we can look to sharing this experience in a collaborative way that helps further our collective goal, which is to make sure that school bus transportation in any form stays the safest means of transportation on the planet.
STN: What is the CVSA school bus task force? How was it cre-
ated? What activities is it engaged in? How does one get involved? SK: Te purpose of the task force is to reduce commercial and
non-commercial school bus-related crashes, injuries, and deaths
through outreach, education, safety, compliance, legislative, pol- icy and regulatory strategies. It was established several months ago in part as a response to a Bus Safety Summit that CVSA held in the Spring of 2009. CVSA’s president at the time saw the need to bring more attention to this issue and create a mechanism for CVSA to have more focused dialogue among its own members and with others. Te task force has established nine goals in fur- therance of its purpose, many of which are in line with CVSA’s mission of uniformity, reciprocity and knowledge sharing. Te task force resides under CVSA’s Passenger Carrier Committee, which is one of CVSA’s 11 “special committees” and deals with all things related to motorcoach and passenger carrying driver, vehicle and motor carrier safety and security. Any CVSA member or associate member can be involved in the committee, and any- one attending a CVSA conference where the committee meets is able to sit in on the committee meeting and participate should they choose to do so. At a fundamental level, the task force is about sharing informa-
tion and helping those who want it. Its reason for being is not to force ideas or mandates onto the school bus industry — that is a false myth. CVSA wants to use its communications, legisla- tive, and collaborative approach between government, industry and safety experts to help elevate school bus safety across North America in all aspects (public and private) and get the attention of others on the need to address any gaps and/or issues that may exist in this area, to include funding needs. n
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48 School Transportation News Magazine May 2010
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