DALLAS — A national online survey conducted for Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) shows that the majority of those surveyed are concerned enough about vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses that they support measures to use cameras to ticket offenders.
The survey was conducted within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of ACS from Aug. 16-18, 2011, among 2,112 adults ages 18 and older.
School bus camera pilot programs conducted by ACS show that buses are illegally passed at least once a day, similar to national surveys and estimates. Sixty-six percent of the adults surveyed support placing cameras on the side of school buses to help ticket drivers who commit the offense.
Survey results also showed that more than three out of every four adults (77 percent) agree school bus drivers are too busy focusing on student safety to record information of vehicles that illegally pass their stopped buses.
"Bus drivers transport life's most precious cargo — our children," said Mark Talbot, group president, local government — Americas, ACS. "A driver's focus cannot simultaneously be on protecting a student from an illegally passing vehicle and capturing the license plate information of the offending vehicle. This survey highlights the public's overwhelming support for … school bus cameras to help improve student safety."
ACS' CrossSafe technology is one solution aimed at changing driver behavior by deterring drivers from passing a school bus while children are boarding or disembarking.
Using a video camera mounted near a school bus' stop arm, CrossSafe captures and reports illegal passing incidents by electronically sharing the video with local law enforcement. The video is watermarked with the time and date of the incident, GPS coordinates and license plate numbers.
Survey: 66% support cameras to capture illegal bus passing
The study, which was conducted for Affiliated Computer Services Inc., also shows that 77 percent of the 2,112 adults surveyed agree that school bus drivers are too busy focusing on student safety to record information of vehicles that illegally pass their stopped buses.
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