I
n late March, a 9-year-old child in Ramapo, New York, north of New York City and close to the New Jersey state line, exited a school bus late in the day. The student was then hit by a passing pickup truck and
thrown a distance, landing beneath a parked minivan. The student was later rushed and admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment. It’s the nightmare of every parent and school district who places student safety at the fore- front of any transportation event. The incident highlights the importance of video tech-
nology to not only deter motorists from violating the law regarding stopped school buses. It also helps get to the bottom line of the incident causes and aids investigators to find culpability. In late 2022, the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services re- leased its results of a survey of 79,859 school bus drivers (representing a mere 20 percent of all schools in the U.S.) The school bus drivers reported that 51,593 vehi- cles passed their buses illegally on a single day during the 2021-2022 school year. Extrapolating their findings for all schools, NASDPTS estimates that “throughout a 180-day school year, these sample results point to more than 41.8 million violations per year among America’s motoring public.” The video footage does not lie or exaggerate. It does not
stretch the truth at all. Instead, it helps land the violators with hefty fines and helps law enforcement agencies act against the guilty and inserts a new layer of safety for pupil transportation. Those who provide stop-arm safety systems and other safety technologies for school bus fleets are saddened to hear of another illegal-passing incident, especially if it could have been avoided. “As student safety advocates, it’s incredibly disheart- ening to hear another child has been impacted by something that may have been avoidable,” said Chris Akiyama, vice president of school bus for Safe Fleet. “Significant effort has gone into legislating for change with the [federal] infrastructure package Bill HR3684. [The] industry has also done a tremendous job of bring- ing the stop arm violation issue to the forefront. There’s no doubt the landscape is changing for the better. Until it does, legislators, advocates and the industry need to become the village that bands together to protect our students through a multi-pronged approach to student safety outside the bus. “This approach relies on the critical dedication of each
of these parties and involves increased bus visibility, pro- active student notifications that help students be active
participants in their own safety, enforcement of stop arm violations, analysis of routing data for better bus stop placements and advocacy and education, and awareness programs,” he continued. “These changes are desperately needed now and are only possible if we all work together.”
Maximizing Student Safety With Video Technology Jay Bruner, the director of transportation at Dothan
City Schools in Alabama, said his district uses AngelTrax for video surveillance. Dothan City Schools recently outfitted it’s 89 school buses, which transport 4,900 students daily to and from 17 schools across 90-square miles, with stop-arm video cameras. “Everything we do in transportation is about student
safety and we wanted to try to maximize it,” Bruner said. “And I’ve been in transportation for 10 years and I know one thing that’s an epidemic throughout the country, and we talk about it every year when we go to transpor- tation conferences.” In March, the district launched an automated stop-arm
violation program using AngelTrax’s Child Safety Pro- gram. The program includes a safety camera system that monitors and detects drivers who illegally pass school buses. The cameras not only serve as a deterrent to any motorist who would ever consider passing a school bus stop arm, but also enforces violators by recording when the school bus stops, and amber lights are activated. The system automatically detects vehicles passing the stopped school bus, records the incident, confirms the stop-arm violation, and sends the registered owner of the vehicle a citation—a $300 fine, in the mail. “We’ve had a lot of close calls,” Bruner said. “Three or
four times a year I’d have drivers come into my office and break down [on] how they did everything right, how the kid did everything they were supposed to and almost had a near fatality. It goes back to just trying to protect kids. Our goal is to change [motorist] behaviors so they can understand the importance of heightening their awareness when they’re around school buses.” The program was of no cost to the school district, in-
stead it is provided and installed by the equipment provider and funded by the fines that it generates from violations.
Managing Video Technology Into the Future Video technology, however, is found in different places
on a school bus nowadays and will likely have many valu- able uses in the future. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools and technology
Read more about the Ramapo, New York incident at
stnonline.com/go/f8. 34 School Transportation News • MAY 2023
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