First Student to complete Child Check-Mate installation
In a $9.8 million agreement, First Student announced the installation of safety and security technology from Child Check-Mate Systems of Navan, Ontario, on 40,000 of its school buses.
CINCINNATI — In a $9.8 million agreement, First Student announced the installation of safety and security technology from Child Check-Mate Systems of Navan, Ontario, on 40,000 of its school buses.
North Andover, Mass.-based InstallerNet will carry out the installation. The company completed a similar project with First Student last year, installing the devices in 20,000 buses.
This phase of the project, a result of First Student’s fleet increase upon merging with Laidlaw, is scheduled to begin in September and be completed by April 2009.
The Child Check-Mate system provides an electronic reminder system requiring drivers to check the entire school bus for sleeping children at the end of each route. Failure to deactivate the system at the end of a route results in both audible and visual alarms, including a synthesized voice message.
Once the Child Check-Mate component is deactivated and the driver has left the bus, the system automatically sets Theft-Mate, which detects unauthorized entry of unattended school buses.
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