Columbus City Schools in Ohio piloted the new high-visibility bus with the goal of making the option available statewide.
For Jeff Vrabel, Sr., seeing is believing—especially when it comes to the increased visibility that LED lights deliver for the Columbus City Schools bus fleet in Ohio. Vrabel, fleet services supervisor for Ohio’s largest school district, spent the better part of six months last year working with Lt. Aaron Reimer, Ohio State Highway Patrol Motor Vehicle Inspection Division supervisor, to determine the best placement of a series of LED lights for improving bus safety around the loading and unloading zone. Te completed system grabs the attention of other motorists
who are prone to illegally pass the bus. “It all started off with us just talking about ways to make buses safer, and how can you warn drivers to slow down in a safer distance,” said Vrabel. He noted that a central question to be answered was how well and how fast other drivers recognized a stopped bus. He and Reimer developed a configuration that mounted four amber-and-red flashing lights on a bus grille and added lights to illuminate danger zones, plus a yellow chevron of reflective tape on the back, to increase visibility. New floodlights underneath the sides of the Type-A school bus
were designed to give the driver a 360-degree view, help people walking to the bus see the road surface and give other drivers a better view of people on foot. Lights on the back of the bus were placed at a 45-degree angle, so as to avoid distracting other drivers while also providing the bus operator with a better field of vision. Ten, they put their collaboration to the test just weeks before
the National Association of Pupil Transportation (NAPT) and Na- tional Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Ser- vices (NASDPTS) held their annual 2017 conferences in Colum- bus, just a few miles from the district’s garage. Vrabel and Reimer liked the results and so did the bus driver who tested the vehicle.
Visit us at booth 545
Serving Districts with Special Transportation Needs
• McKinney-Vento • Special Needs Students • Hard-to-Serve Trips • Out-of-District • Multi-District Coordination • ESSA
www.ALCSchools.com 46 School Transportation News • JUNE 2018
WHO WE ARE
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