Jul 1, 2004
12:00 PM
Television
viewers across the nation recoiled in horror this February when
news programs repeatedly showed video from a school bus surveillance
system of a 12-year-old Jacksonville, Fla., boy being beaten by
at least seven of his peers while riding home from school. Fortunately,
the victim was not seriously injured.
That same
month, a 12-year-old girl in Long Island, N.Y., was knocked unconscious
for at least 15 hours after being struck on the head by other
students on a school bus taking them home from middle school.
While these
are extreme cases, school bus incidents are not uncommon. For
the past four years, one rural school district in Georgia has
taken a host of steps to improve its students' safety —
both inside and outside its buses.
“Everything
is geared to the safety of the students,” says Jeff Turner,
Ed.D., transportation director for Monroe County Schools. “We
are trying to be pro-active, not reactive.”
The results
are improved safety for the district's 3,800 pre-kindergarten
through high school students riding school buses daily. Due to
the nature of the district's largely rural area, some of the students
ride a school bus up to 90 minutes each way.
Last summer,
Turner began working with Boca Raton, Fla.-based ADT Security
Services Inc. to install four color digital video cameras on each
of the district's 60 buses, as well as a digital video recorder
with an 80GB hard drive. The cameras and the DVRs are part of
the BusSecure system from GE Security.
The system
interfaces with a bus's onboard computer, recording data that
includes speed, braking and safety signal activation, such as
stop sign arms and flashing lights. The driver can also press
an indicator switch that will mark specific video for easy retrieval
later.
ADT technicians
mounted two cameras, one in the front and the other in the middle
to monitor activities toward the back of the bus. A third camera
is mounted above and to the left of the driver's seat to provide
a view of the main door. The final camera is mounted just outside
the window on the driver's side and is used to help identify vehicles
that illegally pass the bus once the driver has dropped a stop
sign when loading and/or unloading passengers.
A microphone
located at the front of the bus captures audio from throughout
the vehicle and allows the driver to add comments to events. All
video and audio is recorded on the DVR kept under lock and key
and hidden on the bus. The hard drive can be easily removed and
connected to a PC in each school and in Turner's office. District
personnel can quickly burn video to a CD to share with law enforcement.
Individual shots may also be printed to paper for distribution.
Each hard drive has the capacity to record about three weeks worth
of video.
Turner said
before upgrading to the DVRs, Monroe County Schools used VCRs
to record bus cameras.
“There
were major drawbacks to VCRs,” he says. “For one thing,
our long routes meant we couldn't record more than a day or a
day and a half on one tape. The units were not as reliable and
more prone to breaking down or requiring service. It took much
longer to locate an incident, while the DVRs can find video by
time and date almost instantly. And finally, the VCRs only allowed
us to have one camera per bus.”
Also, the
DVR's ability to print pictures easily has turned out to be a
major tool in maintaining student discipline, Turner adds. “Sometimes
when we call a parent about a disciplinary problem, we hear ‘My
child would never hit anyone.’ When we show them the photo
of an incident, that usually helps to remedy the situation quickly.”
The video
from the DVRs is also watermarked so that it can be used in court
as evidence.
The district's
buses are also equipped with the Child Reminder System from Exton,
Pa.-based Wolfington Body Company, which helps ensure that no
passengers or belongings are left inside the bus after the completion
of a route. The driver has 30 seconds to deactivate the system,
which is located at the back of the bus. If the operator fails
to do so within the required time, the horn will begin to blow.
By walking to the rear of the bus, the driver has the opportunity
to double-check the vehicle before disembarking.
Each bus is
also equipped with an automatic vehicle locator (AVL), a device
that makes use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to
enable the district to remotely track the location of its buses.
Using the AVL system, Turner can pinpoint the exact location,
ground speed and direction of his fleet. The system also allows
him to see where each bus has made a stop.
“That
comes in handy when a parent calls to say the bus driver didn't
stop to pick up their child,” Turner says. “I can
immediately confirm that the driver did stop and even tell the
parent what time the stop occurred. And if there was no stop,
I can take that up with the driver.”
The district
purchases five or six new buses each year and equips them with
Hindsight 20/20 sensors from Sonar Safety Systems of Santa Fe
Springs, Calif. Mounted on the rear of each vehicle, the sensors
detect cars, trees and other objects and beep to let the driver
know when the bus is within nine, six and three feet of a potential
collision. Dr. Turner said Hindsight 20/20 has reduced rear-end
collisions, as well as district insurance rates.
The total
cost of cameras and DVRs is about $4,000 per bus. All other safety
equipment adds about another $1,000 for each vehicle. According
to Turner, comments about the district's efforts have been very
positive.
“We
have had a good response to the cameras from the administrators,
drivers and parents,” he says. “Most of our students
honor our standards so they have no problems with the system.
Some of them even said they feel safer riding on the buses with
that extra layer of protection.”
