CultureShock!


Student transporters say there is more to establishing a true safety culture than implementing safety technologies to mitigate human error and lessen the impact of adverse driving conditions.


WRITTEN BY ART GISSENDANER T


he late management consultant, best-selling author and educator Peter Drucker was known for his insightful and sometimes pithy quotes. One of his most repeated quotes in organiza-


tional management is “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” When it comes to the safety of school children, ev-


eryone from school board members to state lawmakers are creating strategies to ensure that school bus safety is more than simply a slogan. That’s despite the prevailing culture that includes motorists who seemingly break every traffic law that is related to keeping students safe


28 School Transportation News • JULY 2019


around school buses. Creating a strategy in re-


sponse is relatively easy. Causing sustained change via reculturing is the hard part. New legislation increases the fines for running stop


arms or authorizes school districts to install video cam- eras to capture illegal passers. Motorists complain, but the number of stop arm runners dips—for a while. Then, culture takes over, and that number spikes again, to a point where five children, including three siblings in Indiana, were killed across four states within


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