SAFE FLEET BLOG

Visit us in booth 629 to learn how we can help you change the danger zone into a safety zone.

We’re excited about this year’s NAPT Annual Conference and Tradeshow and looking forward to continuing conversations about Danger Zone Safety.

NAPT Executive Director, Mike Martin’s recent email to NAPT members challenged the school transportation community to take a different approach to danger zone safety. He stated:

“…we have policies, procedures and training in place, but we need to rethink all of it because until we have zero school transportation related fatalities (more on that next month), we can do better.”

He continued by saying we must all come to grips with the reality that the problem of illegal passing is, in many ways, beyond our control.

“We will never be able to completely control what other drivers do behind the wheel.”

And he boldly, concluded that we, as an industry, might ultimately be part of the problem, indicating that we must also be open to changing our approach to problem solving. He asserted that we must shift the paradigm, allowing creativity to fuel innovative ways to solve a very real, very big challenge.

A subsequent news story highlighted his point. Two students in Winfield Township, Michigan were seriously injured while crossing the street to get to their school bus. Both students were struck by the passing motorist. The older of the two, suffered a ruptured spleen and knee injury. The younger student received a concussion.

Further support for a new approach to perimeter safety came from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) who recommended two new technologies to combat the problem: pedestrian collision avoidance systems and improved, road-tested vehicle headlights.

The pedestrian collision avoidance systems would alert school bus drivers that people have been detected in the danger zone (not just objects, but people). The improved headlights would provide motorists with a longer field of vision to see students crossing the street in dusky or dark lighting conditions.

These messages are a timely reminder that one student injury or death is one too many. We all have to do more to improve student safety. Solving this challenge will take creative thinking, ingenuity and the utilization of new and innovative technology.

We’d like to invite you to our booth at this year’s NAPT Annual Conference and Tradeshow to continue the conversation that Mike Martin sparked in his email. We have been re-thinking the problem with new solutions to improve student safety. We’ve applied creative thinking, artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics and active notifications to help bridge the gap our industry has been troubled with.

If you’d like more of a sneak peek on the solutions we feel can greatly contribute to changing the danger zone into a safety zone, get a copy of our white paper on the topic here.

Otherwise, we’ll see you in booth 629 at NAPT in KCMO this October. We’re looking forward to continuing this conversation with you then.
Together, let’s change the Danger Zone into a Safety Zone.