EDITOR’S TAKE
The Human Element of Collision Avoidance
Written by Ryan Gray |
ryan@stnonline.com N
ational School Bus Safety Week each Oc- tober is another opportunity to remind motorists about the tremendous responsi- bility we all share around school buses and
school children. Stop for the red lights. Obey the stop arm. Slow down in school zones. Watch for children at bus stops and when crossing streets. We know the messages. But knowing what to do mat-
ters only if we are paying enough attention to recognize when we need to do it. That is especially relevant this month. We examine
the rapidly advancing collision-avoidance technology reaching school buses. Automatic braking, lane-related warnings, connected vehicle technology, cameras and other systems are increasingly capable of recognizing hazards, alerting drivers and, in some cases, reacting faster than a human can. Similar technology is commonplace in our personal ve-
hicles. My car can warn me if I drift from my lane or get too close to another vehicle. Other vehicles can automatically brake when their systems detect an impending collision. All of that is remarkable and welcome. We also need to do more to avoid collisions the old-fashioned, human way: Pay attention. Working remotely has changed some of my own
habits. Without a traditional commute to and from an office, I find myself conducting more conversations with work associates while driving to appointments, picking up the kids or running errands. Even before remote work became commonplace, I frequently spoke with school transportation professionals during their morning or afternoon commutes. It feels productive. Why waste 20 or 30 minutes in the
car when we can knock out a conversation? Because our attention has limits, that’s why. Earlier this year at STN EXPO East, speaker Bret Brooks
spoke about the difference between being careless and caring less. Being careless means failing to give something the attention it deserves. Caring less can be intentional. Sometimes we need to give less attention to things that aren’t as important at a particular moment so we can devote more attention to what is. Behind the wheel is a great place to put that into
practice. That work call might be important. The meet- ing might be approaching. The conversation might save some time later. But none of it is more important than
10 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2026
what is happening outside the windshield. April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, but we
can’t wait until then to practice mindfulness. Distract- ed driving needs to be top of mind every month, week, day, hour, minute and second of the year, especially in school zones and wherever school buses are loading and unloading children. A Governors Highway Safety Association survey STN
reported on last month found that 46 percent of parents whose children ride school buses said their child had ex- perienced a close call involving dangerous driving near a school bus or in a school zone. Across all surveyed par- ents, 36 percent reported such an experience involving their own child. Distracted driving and speeding were among the dangerous behaviors reported. Those numbers demand our attention. Certainly, if we take a call while driving, hands-free
should be the minimum. Don’t hold the phone. And there is absolutely no justification for reading or sending texts, checking email or scrolling while you are operat- ing a vehicle. But hands-free does not mean distraction-free. A
conversation can occupy our thoughts. So can drows- iness, passengers, food, navigation systems, vehicle controls or simply mentally working through the next deadline or problem. Even other traffic on the road. Meanwhile, a school bus may be stopping ahead. A
child may be approaching a crosswalk. Traffic may sud- denly slow. Vehicle-to-everything technology promises to alert motorists when they come upon a school bus stop. The technology is impressive but still in it’s infancy, as it is only available in a figurative handful of vehicles. It will take decades for all vehicles on the road to commu- nicate with each other and road infrastructure. One of the most important observations this month
comes from Rosalyn Vann-Jackson of Broken Arrow Public Schools in Oklahoma. She notes that the safest technology isn’t necessarily technology that removes the human from the equation. It’s technology that helps the human make a safer decision sooner. Let’s continue developing and adopting technology that
gives motorists and school transportation operators anoth- er layer of protection on the road. But we cannot surrender our own first line of collision avoidance in the process. ●
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