A New Safety Paradigm

August 5, 2024

Last month, I was invited to a special safety event hosted by IMMI and Blue Bird Corporation at IMMI’s headquarters in Westfield, Indiana. Blue Bird President Britton Smith took to the stage to address the crowd of school transportation operators, school bus dealers and other business partners to share a new partnership and vision for safety.

“For nearly a century, our children’s safety has been our business. We proudly carry millions of school children every year, the most precious cargo in the world,” said Smith. “Today, we raise the bar even higher for student transportation by announcing the most comprehensive safety upgrades to our school buses in our history.”

It’s rare for me to be surprised, so the announcement that Blue Bird is making lap/shoulder seatbelts standard across its entire school bus line and at no additional cost to customers was an intriguing piece of news. On top of that, Blue Bird also announced another industry first with the addition of the IMMI 4Front steering wheel deployed air bag for improved driver safety. I truly believe that the announcement made on June 13 will have a ripple effect across the school transportation industry. It will positively impact the safety of school buses, kids, drivers and school transportation operators everywhere.

“This is a historic event,” commented Dr. Mark Rosekind, the 15th administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who presided over the 2015 federal mandate for lap/shoulder seatbelts in all small school buses and the recommendation that they be implemented in large school buses. “Blue Bird deserves huge credit. Every bus manufacturer should have three-point belts on them. This is what real safety leadership looks like. Lives will be saved in the future.” Smith shared that Blue Bird will also be implementing a series of improvements to increase performance and safety on the road by adopting high-intensity LED lighting on the outside and inside of the bus, high-resolution front and rear cameras, as well as lighted stop arms, lighted school bus signs, and strobe lights. It will also be implementing high-tech collision mitigation systems.

During the event, attendees transitioned to IMMI’s Center for Advanced Product Evaluation (CAPE) to observe a crash test demonstration. A box truck was propelled at 40 mph into the side of a Blue Bird Propane Vision school bus to demonstrate an off center crash. The goal was to gauge how the new steering wheel airbag deployed, the durability of the school bus in the crash, and how belted and unbelted passengers would be impacted based on this crash scenario.

The audience gasped as the vehicles struck each other with a great magnitude of force. I heard the smashing of glass, twisting of metal and screeching of the tires. The smell of engine fluids and burned tire rubber permeated the air. No matter how many times I have seen similar crash test demonstrations, it provides a vivid reminder of the violence and intensity when a crash occurs. You, too, can watch the crash demo by finding me on LinkedIn or Facebook, as I posted it there for all to see.

This was the third time I had witnessed this sort of demonstration. The previous two times have been in conjunction with STN EXPO EAST in 2021 and 2022, when school buses were crashed and rolled over. This event was as impactful as ever to ram home the value of occupant restraint and safety technologies that are being deployed in real-world situations.

In speaking with Ryan Gray, chief content officer at STN on the School Transportation Nation Podcast following the event, we are both curious how the other school bus OEMs will respond to this announcement. I am excited to see everyone this summer at STN EXPO in Reno as the latest technology and safety products will be on display, including the ones mentioned above. Be sure to attend my panel discussion on the latest safety technology trends on Monday, July 15. Will this decision be the catalyst of change to start a movement toward safer school buses? Time will tell. Let’s keep driving forward together!

Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the July 2024 issue of School Transportation News.