Illegal school bus passings are a big problem in the U.S. right now, with more districts and agencies looking into ways to prevent them than ever before. First Light Safety Products is one of the first companies to conduct a study on the effectiveness of fully illuminated stop arms on school buses, and the initial results are promising.

The study began after First Light received feedback from their customers that showed a decrease in illegal passings after the fully illuminated stop-arm technology was implemented. With the only other data available being the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS)’s one-day stop arm violation study, First Light decided to move ahead with a study of their own.

Finding Schools for the Study

This efficacy study looked at data sent in from 15 school districts, each selected for having a record of illegal passings or a strong perception of a problematic route. When selecting schools, First Light worked to include districts that were not pre-existing customers of theirs to introduce their stop arm technology to new areas and communities.

“We did have a few school districts in the study that were current customers of ours and were able to provide very sound and referenceable data records,” said Brett Kuchciak, specification and compliance manager at First Light. “A couple of them were part of state-run pilots originally.”

When starting to identify districts, First Light was hoping to find schools that had records of stop-arm violations from a year prior that could install the illuminated stop arms and record violations afterward. Several school districts had cameras already installed on their buses, however they did not keep the exact type of data records that First Light was hoping to use in their study.

First Light was hoping to analyze data from districts with a recorded number of violations higher than the NASDPTS’ national average of three illegal passings per school bus per week.

“What we found was, despite a large amount of school districts having cameras on their buses, they did not have records unless it was a ticket able offence,” Kuchciak said. “Realizing that there weren’t that many district that had referenceable or sound data, we had to start from scratch. So we tried to find districts that had the perception that they had routes with problems.”

Once the districts were identified, the majority were provided with tracking sheets to help them implement First Light’s tracking methods. These districts then recorded illegal school bus passings for a period of time to establish a baseline before the illuminated stop arms were installed.

Lessening Illegal Passings

When the results of the study came back, they showed a significant overall decrease in illegal school bus passings in 14 of the 15 school districts. 

When looking at situations where the stop arms helped the most, low-light settings saw an unsurprising improvement. With a 73% decrease in illegal passings in low light conditions over the course of the study, the illuminated stop arms were doing what they were designed to.

“Our product’s job is to increase the visibility of the school bus and give motorists the most time to recognize and react to the vehicle,” Kuchciak said. “Naturally, when it is dark outside and you can’t necessarily tell that it’s a 40-foot long yellow vehicle driving down the road at you with different lights, having that proper identification and being able to actually see the word stop and recognize a red octagon gave motorists the most time to react.”

One of the most surprising results from the study was the 100% decrease in violations recorded in New Braunfels Independent School District in Texas.

“We hear from customers all the time that stop arm violation issues have been completely resolved one the product is installed, but seeing the before and after data was compelling,” Kunhciak added.

Another district that saw high decreases in illegal stoppings were Bath Central School District in New York, with a 92.1% decrease when running the study from September of 2021 to December of 2022, and a 84.2% decrease when running it from January of 2022 to April of 2022.

The data from Bath Central School District provided First Light with some very useful data about the effectiveness of their illuminated stop arms over a period of time. One concern brought up by those that doubt the technology is that their effectiveness will decrease as the novelty of seeing illuminated stop arms lessens.

“Some naysayers out there say that once the stop arm is on the bus for a little while, the wow factor or the fact that it’s a different product on a bus will eventually just wear off,” said Kuchciak. “They actually think that stop-arm violations will increase to the original numbers over time. If we compared Bath Central School’s first report to their second report, we actually saw a greater decrease in the year-over-year violations; it’s getting better over time.”

Reception of the Stop Arms

When introducing new technologies like this, their effectiveness often brings a positive reception. Even though the study has concluded, districts that participated were allowed to keep the fully illuminated stop arms, and most of the school districts even added them as a requirement for new buses. The transportation director at Walton Verona School District in Kentucky, Chris Schadler, played a key role in having illuminated stop arms standardized as a requirement for all new school buses in the state of Kentucky.

Bus drivers also showed support for the technology, as many drivers feel responsible for the children they are transporting. With the large reduction in illegal passings observed, the illuminated stop arms are making a noticeable difference in keeping children safe.

“What we find with a lot of bus drivers is that once they have it on their bus, their colleagues get a little bit envious,” said Kuchciak. “It’s a community issue, but these people feel responsible for the children and anything that can really help their bus, and also their kids, get to and from school safer is greatly appreciated. We often find that once one driver tests it out for the district the next thought is let’s deploy this at more troubling or newer routes.”

Going Beyond the Study

With this study completed, First Light has some solid data supporting the effectiveness of their illuminated stop arm technology. Their illuminated stop arms were selected to be part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s required school bus safety project.

Dunlap and Associates, a research group, is working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to further test the illuminated stop arms. First Light was able to provide them with details on the technology, the testing methods used in this study, and how they handled district scouting. 

NHTSA has been able to put the technology on buses at Virginia Tech and are currently testing stopping distance and reaction times for drivers.

First Light is continuing to collect data from their customers who are utilizing the technology and are working with other members of the industry to gather more data points related to illuminated stop arms. There are plans to continue working with leaders in the industry and encourage data based decisions when it comes to how efforts should be focused in keeping children safest.

In addition, they are working with a number of states that are looking at running pilots for the technology.

First Light is also considering other aspects of the illegal school bus passing problem. While illuminating the stop arms may be seeing good results, there are many other factors to address.

“There are a lot of other aspects out there, we know that there are very few times where we get things 100% right, and we realize there’s gaps,” said Kuchciak. “Let’s, as an industry, figure out where those gaps are and figure out what the best solution for them is. There needs to be a local focus on understanding what the issue is so we can combat it.”

Illegal school bus passings may be a major concern right now, but technologies like First Light’s illuminated stop arm are helping districts slow down violations and drivers alike. 

The full details of First Light’s fully Illuminated Stop Arm Study can be found here.