Roads are becoming busier and distractions more complex, causing students to be more at risk than ever before. A 2019 NASDPTS survey identified 95,000 illegal passes across 39 states in a single day; that’s over 17 million near misses in one school year.
It’s not surprising then that for 57% of the school bus transportation professionals we polled in our recent webinar: How to Keep Kids Safe from Illegal School Bus Passing Accidents, illegal passing is considered to be a serious problem with daily violations and multiple close calls per year. However, according to our second poll, only 47% said public awareness campaigns are methods they use to keep kids safe.
Watch the webinar, starting at the 0:10:30 mark, for tips from both Derrick Agate, the Supervisor of Transportation at Hopkins Public Schools, and our own PR guru Jessica Rodwell on developing relationships with local media. Derrick and Jessica share suggestions on how to develop effective public awareness campaigns that will make the motorists in your district more aware of stopped school buses.
Other interesting takeaways from the webinar include:
Partnering with law enforcement results in greater awareness of school bus stop rules among motorists (0:15:55).
Personally checking in on a school bus route can reveal sources of problems that bus drivers may not report (0:21:47).
The Predictive Stop Arm™ (PSA) works to warn kids of impending illegal passes, even in snowy or low-light conditions (0:35:55).
Stop-arm cameras can deter illegal passing through fines and citations, but the citation process is not easy and can cause lost time for your drivers (0:31:40).
Also, be sure to check out this NCSL map and state-by-state listing of stop-arm camera laws to see if you can use them in your state.
