Comprehensive technology packages deliver safety outside the bus while cloud connectivity enhances on-board safety and operational oversight. These new technologies are handling the common challenges faced by school districts with surprising results.
The Illegal Passing Epidemic
Post-pandemic, we’ve returned to standard operations and so has the illegal passing epidemic. Risk to students remains ever-present and the number of violations each day continue to grow.
Over 17 million stop-arm violations happen each year with almost 95,000 illegal passes each day in the US. This means every day 95,000+ students are at risk of injury or death.
But today we have proactive, preventative, and comprehensive solutions to address these issues. And today these solutions when used together are starting to make a difference.
These solutions have 3 elements that aim to reduce stop arm violation risk:
The need for increased School Bus Visibility:
We can give drivers every opportunity to see the bus, protect students and obey the laws with high visibility stop arms that go the extra distance by catching a driver’s attention from over 250 yards from the bus. LED alert devices, located on the back door of the bus flash different alert messages depending on the bus driver’s actions to help ensure motorists behind the bus know the bus is stopping.
Crossing arms help bus drivers maintain constant line of sight with students about to load/unload. Specialty rear view mirrors with embedded camera views from exterior rear facing cameras, help bus drivers see what is happening outside the rear of the bus and 360° bird’s eye camera systems help bus drivers see the full outside perimeter. Every angle of the bus is visible to the bus driver and every high-visibility tool is on display to help drivers see the bus.
The need to involve the students:
The only thing we haven’t done to date to address this issue is to alert the students when they are in danger and enable them to actively participate in their safeguarding. Proactive technology that monitors oncoming traffic and measures whether a stop arm violation is likely is available and in use today. These systems alert students directly when risk is present by directing them through an audible message – to “stay back.”
The need to enforce proper driver behavior:
We can capture violations as they occur and use the captured evidence to ticket violators, reinforce better behavior, and positively impact other drivers in the process through public awareness campaigns.
The All-Star Safety Team
When all these systems work together, students get a comprehensive safety umbrella outside the school bus. This safety umbrella, when it includes the proactive violation detection solution, delivers results the day of installation.
Onboard Safety and School Bus Fleet Efficiency
Increased connectivity is in demand everywhere. It’s no surprise either. Connectivity allows us to do more, know more and make better decisions. This is true for school buses too.
Connecting your fleet to the cloud enables an incredible range of value-add functionality through systems that drive increased safety and efficiency today and future-proofs your fleet for tomorrow. Some of these systems can operate stand-alone. Some can integrate with your on-board surveillance (camera) system. All of them, whether implemented one at a time or all at once, make your fleet of school buses safer and smarter.
A Connected Bus can help a school district solve the following critical, yet common issues:
- Lack of safety and lack of access to critical insight
- Parent concerns and student ridership gaps
- Incomplete accident investigations
- Routing and planning inefficiencies
- Time consuming maintenance processes
What Connectivity Means for your Fleet
Implementing connectivity on your fleet, turning your buses into Connected School Buses, means three things: proactivity, reliability, and forward-thinking.
Longer term, cloud connectivity means maximum economy and longevity. The Connected School Bus can be implemented as a simple surveillance system with automatic video-uploading on a single bus in your fleet. And, with its scalable platform, you can build up from there, adding on new features as you need them.
Any of the solutions mentioned here will help improve fleet safety and efficiency, but maximum gain comes from the strength of each of these systems working together, collectively combatting risk in the danger zone, risk on the bus and operational risk from inefficient processes.
There’s no question today’s fleets need these solutions. Even less of a question for tomorrow’s fleets.
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