To continue to ensure the health and safety of its students and staff, New York-based Southampton Union Free School District is piloting two school bus disinfecting systems that mechanically sanitize buses between routes.

The two systems, one called Trans Mist and the other called Spray Safe System 19, were approved by the New York State Department of Transportation in November 2020 for a six-month trial, Samantha Saw, Southampton Union Free School District’s transportation director, told School Bus Fleet.

The systems, which are installed on two of Southampton’s school buses, are designed to clean the buses with a mist disinfectant that is currently being used in the district’s school buildings, according to a news release from the district. The mist is reportedly deployed by a bus driver between and after routes and can only be used when a bus is empty and the engine is off, the district says. 

“The systems are extremely useful in maintaining the health and safety of our students and drivers,” Saw said in the district’s news release. “They are also time savers.”

Without the systems, the district’s bus drivers reportedly spend hours each day hand-sanitizing each bus while the mist systems can sanitize buses in less than one minute.

The goal, according to Southampton Union Free School District, is to have all 47 buses in its fleet retrofitted with one of the new systems by the end of the 2020-21 school year.

“This is just one way that the district is continuously seeking out new methods to keep our students and staff safe now and into the future,” added Dr. Nicholas Dyno, Southampton’s superintendent of schools, in the district’s news release.

In addition to using the disinfecting systems, all students, drivers, and staff are required to wear masks while on board the district’s buses, and the windows and hatches of each bus are to remain open, according to Saw.