No one can foresee the day when a school bus does not have an adult in the driver seat.  What we can foresee is advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Current OEM supplied school bus driver assist systems, such as anti-lock breaks, electronic stability control and traction control, have been around for a while.  They have been operating behind the scenes without the average driver even knowing.  Today’s  more advanced driver assist systems are found mostly in cars, SUV’s and trucks – like adaptive cruise control, automated emergency braking or blind spot monitoring – are more interactive.  They provide drivers with information about their surroundings and automate repetitive tasks in the hope of an overall increase in safety.

New autonomous technologies are being developed at a blistering pace.  In just one automotive model year, advanced driver assists have gone from being offered in a minority of new vehicles to being standard in the majority,

What about the school bus?  Anyone planning  long term replacement of a school bus should ask dealers what is currently available or when they would be able to select from the latest ADAS offerings currently available in the auto and and light truck sector.  Any new technology on the school bus is one more step in increasing safety for our children.

Many operations across the nation has had a critical issue of driver shortages for several years. Finding solutions has proved to be challenging. Here are a few low-cost solutions that Shenendedowa Central School District (SCSD) in New York have implemented:

• Build your substitute driver list. SCSD found that on any given day at least 15 out of 195 drivers were out. During the fall and spring sports season 15 more were needed for sports trips.
• Advertise drivers needed on the side of a bus not running on a daily basis. A banner for the bus can can be created for less than advertising in a newspaper or online. Park it where it can be seen, alternating parking spots. Applicants told SCSD that the ad was something they spotted every day. Eventually, it caused them to stop by and inquire about the positions.
• Get support from the administration department of your school district. More people involved in recruiting, the better.
• Utilize social media. Put a recruitment letter on your districts website, Twitter and/or Facebook pages. Create an email to send to every community member you have in your district database.
• Produce a recruitment video. Interview current drivers on why they like working for your district. Details of the job and pay ranges can also be discussed here.

The lesson learned by SCSD was to not rest on your laurels, but to continue efforts looking for the best applicants to keep your driver pool healthy. It’s an ongoing project.

School Bus Safety Co. supported National School Bus Safety Week by offering a series of public safety announcements (PSA’s) and a safety poster at no charge.

The training company created five PSA’s to illustrate the dangers of illegally passing stopped school buses. The videos can be requested, viewed or downloaded on the School Bus Safety Co. website.

“Safety is everyone’s responsibility,” said Jeff Cassell, president of School Bus Safety Co., “and that is why [the National Association for Pupil Transportation’s] 2017 School Bus Safety Week campaign #StopOnRed is so important.”

In another effort to promote safety, School Bus Safety Co. is offering its “Vision, Mission & Values” poster, which details practices that drivers should follow and those that they shouldn’t. The company previously gave out 300 hard copies of the poster over a three-week period. It is now available as a free PDF at their website.

Yellow is the color most associated with school buses, but the focus of this year’s National School Bus Safety Week was red.

The 2017 edition of the annual event, held October 16th to 20th, promoted the message ‘Stop on Red’. The theme comes from last year’s National School Bus Safety Week Poster Contest. Pupil transportation and law enforcement officials across the nation took the opportunity to remind motorists about the need to stop for school buses that have their red lights flashing and stop arms extended.

Many states participated in this event. Ohio state troopers followed or rode on school buses to crack down on drivers who don’t stop on red. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, from 2014 to 2016, 4,160 drivers statewide were convicted of failing to stop for a stopped school bus.

Law enforcement in Texas also targeted stop-arm running during NSBSW. State troopers patrolled areas where school buses pick up and drop off students, watching for illegal passing. In 2016 and 2017, thus far, the Texas Highway Patrol has issued 1,100 citations and 573 warnings for passing a stopped school bus.

There is so much information out there on this subject, yet it continues to be a major problem. Is getting to your destination quicker more important than a child’s life? Something for us all to think about!

Have you ever thought that your experiences in student transportation would make for great reading material? Tom Brandon did, and he turned that thought into a collection of short stories that reveal the important connection between school bus drivers and passengers.

Brandon, now retired, worked in education for more than 30 years, mostly at a rural school in northern Alabama. Along with driving a school bus, he was a teacher and a coach.

It was his time behind the wheel that inspired Brandon to launch a blog, where he wrote about his many amusing encounters with the students that he drove back and forth to school. Now Brandon’s observations are available in print in a book called Mr. Brandon’s School Bus: What I Heard on the Way to School (New South Books).

The book includes everything from delivering discipline – stopping a passenger from discussing the details of puberty, to the kid who shows off his new sunglasses – before the sun comes up!

Throughout the book, Brandon’s anecdotes show that being a school bus driver means much more than just driving the bus. It means taking the helm of a classroom on wheels, with the potential to help shape each passenger’s education.

While listening to the radio recently, many Kentucky motorists heard a timely school bus safety message.

During the back-to-school period, the public service announcement (PSA) from the Kentucky State Police reminded drivers to watch for school buses and to stop when the bus is loading or unloading students. “It is illegal to pass a bus that has its stop sign out and red lights activated,” Trooper Corey King says in the PSA. “Remember: Stay alert so kids don’t get hurt.”

Many motorists become complacent and need to be reminded that not only will kids be standing along the roadways, but motorists will see an influx of heavier traffic now that school has started. King goes on to say that there are many distractions inside a car and one of the best ways to communicate with drivers is via the airwaves and taking the message directly to them.

Motorists in Kentucky also recently got a visual reminder about the need to stop for school buses by putting up 51 billboards across the state showing a school bus stop arm with the message: “It’s not JUST a stop sign, it’s a child’s life.”

Great messages!

We have recently discussed the nationwide problem of finding qualified school bus drivers. Here is an initiative to not only find drivers, but to help people who have served our country.

The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) and the Maine Department of Education (DOE) are partnering on a campaign to offer free training to veterans who are interesting in becoming school bus drivers. The 2017 Maine Hire-A-Vet campaign was unveiled at a job fair held by the Maine DOL on August 29.

The initiative, which is designed to help fill an anticipated shortage of school bus drivers in Maine, offers free training at school districts across the state.

According to a 2015 jointly released report of the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Transportation, and U.S. Department of Labor, school bus drivers and special-needs bus drivers hold the second highest number of job openings in the nation. The report also identifies a need for bus mechanics and diesel engine specialists.

Although the initiative is specifically geared toward veterans, the free training is available to anyone interested in becoming a school bus driver. In Maine, they are expecting to fill 50 jobs statewide.

The Seymour, Indiana, Police Department is taking a new approach to crack down on distracted driving.  The department launched what they call “Operation Pullover”.

Using school buses as undercover police vehicles, officers caught unsuspecting people who are distracted while driving, or otherwise breaking the law (not wearing  a seat belt, moving violations, texting, etc.).  The officers inside the bus then signal over to another officer nearby who pulls the person over.

The Seymour Police Department have identified that the number one cause of accidents in their jurisdiction is distracted drivers.  In 2015, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration attributed nearly 3,500 deaths nationwide to distracted driving. Seymour police have attributed 265 deaths in their county alone.

Officers estimated they caught about 10 drivers an hour during the operation, which is very unsettling.  The department expects to conduct more operations a couple of times a month.

Hopefully this will promote safer driving around school buses and school bus drop off and pick up points.

We have all heard of a school bus driver or monitor losing his or her head while on route, but a school bus driver losing a rear wheel?  That’s what happened this past week in Charlotte, NC, according to The Charlotte Observer.

The wheel fell off a Charlotte-Mecklenburg bus in traffic, damaging another car and stranding high school students who were on their way to school.  The district said a transportation mechanicfailed to properly tighten the lug nuts after a brake replacement, and pre-trip and post-trip inspections by bus drivers did not uncover the problem.

While the mechanic at fault is not a new employee, the school district pointed out that its bus garage staff is short-staffed, as 14 of 99 positions in bus maintenance and repair have been unfilled.

Kevin Harrison, the director of student transportation for the North Carolina department of Education, told The Observer that he reviewed the maintenance history of the affected school bus in addition to a sampling of district buses inspected last year.  He said that the report showed an increase in defects and below average safety rating but that he could not find any record of previous wheel or tire issues that indicated a systemic problem.

If this had been a Nascar race, someone would have been fined $25,000 and the loss of their crew chief for 2 races due to loose lugnuts !!!

With Hurricane Harvey wreaking havoc in southeastern Texas last week and causing school closures, some school bus operations in the region have been contributing to relief efforts.  The buses have been used to transport evacuees – as well as donated food and supplies – to local shelters.

The districts that were dispatched to support the evacuation efforts are Humble Independent School District (ISD), New Caney ISD, Houston ISD, Beaumont ISD and Bay City ISD.  School districts farther from the storm are also working to support displaced families.  San Antonio ISD and Austin ISD said that evacuees can enroll in their schools while clean up and rebuilding are taking place.  School districts as far as New York and Missouri are also asking what they can do to help.

Representatives from Humble ISD were stated as saying “as flood waters recede, district staff are assessing each campus and working with authorities to determine when closed roadways will reopen.

And now, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, among other states affected by the wrath of Hurricane Irma, will also need their neighbor’s help.  It is so heart warming to see communities pull together in time of need!