The Safe Fleet Predictive Stop Arm system includes visual cues to bus drivers at stops. When the light is green, students can proceed to cross the street. But a red light indicates a motorist is not stopping. Photo courtesy of Avery County Schools in North Carolina.
“I usually work with the same officer, who comes in and watches the videos with me. He decides which cases will best stand up in court. He also pays a visit to the person’s house with his body camera on.”
King said the conversation might go something like this: Officer: “Is that your car?” Violator: “Yes, it is.” Officer: “Were you out on Creek Road last Tuesday?” Violator: “Yes, I was, going to the doctor.” Then the officer will inform them that they were caught on camera passing a stopped school bus and issue them a citation. “Last year, we had a 100-percent conviction rate,” King said
proudly. “The local paper did an article on that. We take these vio- lations very seriously here.” However, such a close relationship with law enforcement may not be possible in a larger school district. “We cover an enor- mous area,” shared Jay McNamara, the operations manager for Capistrano Unified District in Southern California. “Our buses don’t have stop-arm cameras, but even if they did, I’d have to hire another person simply to review the video. On top of that, I don’t think our local law enforcement has the personnel to devote to the issue. If we have a problem area, we can make a call and they’ll make an effort to catch violators there. We also have one day a year devoted to school bus safety, where they will put a patrol car in problem areas. It’s not that they don’t want to coop- erate, there’s just not enough personnel.” Capistrano Unified is not allowed to install stop-arm cameras
of violations in Avery County Schools based in Newland, North Carolina. His fleet is comprised of 24 buses provided by the state. During the first year the district began using five stop-arm cameras, in which it recorded 84 illegal passing incidents. Since January of last year, that number has been reduced to 31. King, who is also the school bus garage su- pervisor, said he believes that there are fewer incidents not only due to the videos but the local law enforcement’s efforts to get violators in front of a judge. In North Carolina, the violator simply can’t pay a fine and consider the mat- ter over. They must appear in court and either plead guilty or ask for a trial. “Here in Avery County, we fill out a form and email it to the highway patrol,” King explained.
because they have yet to be approved by the California Highway Patrol. The state also requires school bus drivers to escort K-8 students across the street at bus stops. McNamara also pointed out the liability factor for his district
when it comes to issuing bus passes. “We’re responsible for a stu- dent the moment they leave home to go to their bus stop. The bus pass office and the management team look very carefully at the path the student must take before issuing that pass. In some cases, we can’t issue one because it’s too dangerous. The liability issues makes for some very hard decisions, but there are cases when we must leave a student without transportation.” Meanwhile, King said he hopes to keep students even saf-
er with a predictive stop-arm warning system from Safe Fleet, Seon’s parent company. The district is currently running a pilot program on two buses. “After the installation, we set up a scenario in our parking
lot where a car would drive by the stopped bus. Inside, on the left-hand pillar, the driver sees an indicator with green, yellow, and red lights. If the system senses that a car is going too fast, it beeps, and then issues a loud message that tells the kids to stop,”
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