Archives for School Transportation News

Having served as an expert witness on nearly 60 crossing accidents, roughly half of them involving school buses, I found certain themes common to many of them. However, the range and diversity of mistakes made were nothing short of astonishing, and they illustrate a disturbingly widespread pattern of ignorance and misinformation among members of our transportation community who should, frankly, know better. I am convinced that much of this reflects our community’s refusal to examine this touchy subject responsibly – particularly the National Congress on School Transportation, which has never once addressed any of the system design or operating issues

Drummed into my head as a schoolchild was the mantra, “Cross at the Green, Not In Between.” This slogan still provides the basis for Today’s thinking about following the pedestrian path to and from school or a student’s bus stop. When last year, a study of 7,000 pedestrian accidents in New York City over a four-year period was released, its findings turned this century-old cliché on its head. The implications for the pupil transportation industry are dramatic, and should awaken all of us to a new reality that may save hundreds if not thousands of lives a year, since most

Transportation Professionals may think of crossing-related accidents as a school bus phenomenon. Yet as a veteran expert witness of more than 50 crossing-related lawsuits, I can testify that quite a few of them involved other types of vehicles – transit buses, motorcoaches and even paratransit vehicles. Unlike most school bus-related crossing accidents, where most crossing victims are struck by third- party vehicl3es, crossing victims involving other types of public transportation vehicles are typically struck y the vehicle itself. For these reasons, the positions where crossing accidents are most likely to occur are well worth knowing. As a starting point, one

At the rudimentary level at which most crossing procedures are executed, school bus drivers are supposed to “direct” the students across the roadway when they are certain that either the traffic has been stopped in both directions or it is so distant (if even visible) that the students could easily complete their crossing before any oncoming vehicles reach the bus. The bus would obviously have its red flashers and stop arm engaged as a “fail safe.” In most states, this procedure takes the form of alighting the students, having them queue at the far end of the crossing control guard

Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series examined the limitations of our present 8-way flasher system (for those students whose buses are lucky enough to possess them). In this final installment, we will examine the financial and institutional issues associated with the recommendation for a 12-way flasher system. Costs and Expectations I am fully aware that a large number of school buses in many states do not yet contain even amber flashers (much less stop arms), and cash-strapped school districts are not about to spend even more money for equipment that is not mandated. Yet some of the largest

To a school bus professional at any level, the importance of red flashers and stop arms is beyond intuitive; it is primeval. But is it dangerously naïve to assume that motorists, parents and students think likewise. In thinking about this enigma, it is also important to recognize that, particularly in rural areas, two-color traffic lights are common. But in most cases, these traffic signals’ colors are red and green – not red and amber. Never having even seen such a traffic signal, many urban and suburban motorists approaching a traffic light containing only red and amber lights may have no

There have been plenty of explanations for the phenomenon of school bus pass-bys. Among them is lax law enforcement, eroding increasingly as funding for such enforcement priorities have dwindled – despite an explosion of useful technology employed to simply enforce and practically guarantee conviction. But the dozens of crossing accidents I have examined as a forensic expert have convinced me that a principal reason that motorists fail to stop for engaged red flashers is that, accompanied only by amber signals (if then), they do not recognize them as traffic signals at all. Instead, motorists cite the fact that a large

Several articles ago (“The Steel Wave” in the May, 2008 of STN), I argued for the first of four crossing-related equipment changes that I feel strongly are needed to complete school bus conspicuity. These changes involve efforts to eliminate the ambiguity and temptations many motorists feel when confronting a loading or unloading school bus with its crossing devices engaged, and will clarify crossing procedures for school bus drivers, students and their parents. This second improvement is a twelve-way flasher system. Evolution of the Eight-Way Flasher System Nearly two decades ago, the pupil transportation community acknowledged that red flashers alone provided

As it affects liability, an operating agency’s status as a “common carrier” has an enormous impact not only on determining liability itself, but depending on legal constructs in various states, can also affect considerations like immunity and/or the assessment of punitive damages – often barriers to the assessment of damages afforded to public agencies. So except for motorcoaches deployed in commuter/express service under contract to public transit agencies, these latter considerations rarely affect motorcoach operations in the courtroom. Why the status of common carrier is important is that it requires the “highest duty and standard of care.” Without this status,

Unlike those of many transit systems, school bus stops are not always identified with signage – at either the precise position of the stop or signage indicating that a school bus stop is approaching (the black glyph on yellow background). Rarely is the stop zone itself marked (for example, by red-lining the curb). In particular, the failure to mark the stop’s precise positioning can be problematic – and occasionally dangerous. Creating a bus stop zone of appropriate length, keeping it clear of unauthorized vehicles, and ensuring that school bus drivers pull their vehicles close to and parallel with the curb