In your opinion, how much does school bus visibility or lack thereof affect the safety of the students? 64% a great deal 14% a moderate amount 13% a lot 9% a little (Out of 77 responses to a recent STN reader survey.)
Are you interested in new/updated lighting technologies that claim to make school buses brighter and more easily seen by other motorists? 56% Yes 29% I don’t know 15% No (Out of 77 responses.)
Training Priorities When Addressing the Danger Zone at School Bus Stops: School bus driver proper loading and unloading techniques Student training on correctly loading and unloading Student training on proper street crossing, waiting at or leaving the bus stop Hand signals from drivers to students on when to cross Procedures for instigating yellow and then amber lights/stop arms Community members on illegal passing dangers (Out of 71 responses.)
50% of transportation
directors/supervisors said they have crossing gates installed at the front of their school buses. (Out of 70 responses.)
student fatalities in the Danger Zone around school bus stops. Other vehi- cles, meanwhile, caused 497 fatalities. Still, Steve Randazzo, executive vice
president with BusPatrol, described illegal passing as a national epidemic, the same word used by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services. NASDPTS found last summer in its latest national illegal passing survey that participating school bus drivers in 34 states reported 51,593 motorists ignoring or missing the stop arm and flashing red lights at student stops. Extrapolated for a 180- day school year, the figure could be more than 41.8 million violations. “The driving culture has evolved such
that everyone is distracted. People are texting and driving, people are distract- ed behind the wheel, and there’s just sort of been this historical culture of not enforcing this law,” Randazzo said. BusPatrol partnered with Sacramento
City Schools and two other California districts last year to launch a pilot pro- gram aimed at enacting state legislation to permit local authority to deploy stop- arm cameras. “Typically, when we’re breaking into a new state, we need state legislation and, very often, we’re asked for data to justify passing the state law,” he said. Districts of different size, topography
and population density were chosen to reflect various circumstances in which illegal passing occurs. “In the suburbs or a rural district, unfortunately and tragically, you see a considerable num- ber of deaths because of the [vehicle speed],” he said. “[Camera use] should not be viewed as a ticketing platform or revenue stream. … All children deserve a safer ride to and from school, and all children’ doesn’t just mean city kids.” BusPatrol’s arrangement with dis-
tricts provides cameras at no-cost. The company recoups its capital invest- ment through a negotiated share of violation revenues. “It’s a way to bring all this safety technology to fleets with- out having to ask school districts and taxpayers to foot the bill for the tech- nology,” he added. Randazzo agreed with Kuchciak and Dunn that visibility is a differ- ence-maker for law-abiding drivers. The question is what to do with delib- erate or accidental lawbreakers. That’s where cameras do make a difference, he said. Katherine Tolar, vice president of
operations at vehicle video surveil- lance provider AngelTrax, said turnkey automatic stop arm violation detection— from detection to judication—makes a measurable difference. “Its successful efforts to change driver behavior have
Some school districts are rerouting to eliminate the need for students to cross the street to and from bus stops, which can put them at risk of being struck by an illegally passing motorist. PHOTO COURTESY OF BUSPATROL
38 School Transportation News • FEBRUARY 2023
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