ALLENTOWN, Pa. — BusPatrol’s ongoing mission to secure and modernize school buses across America continues, as Allentown School District is completing its 47 school-day pilot project to collect data on the ongoing problem of stop-arm violations in Pennsylvania, the company announced on Feb. 3.
The results of the pilot identified 205 total violations in 21 unique locations across Allentown over 47 school days. The two participating buses captured an average of 2.18 violations per bus per day.
“Every single child has the right to be safe, and it’s our responsibility as a community to provide that safety,” says Jean Souliere, CEO of BusPatrol. “This starts with protecting them on their journey to and from school. BusPatrol and Zonar Systems have created the safest, most technologically advanced school bus safety platform on the planet by integrating all aspects of route management, fleet management and stop-arm enforcement, all at no cost to school districts.”
For 10 weeks, two school buses in the Allentown fleet were outfitted with the stop-arm cameras, GPS and telemetry, and connected to an encrypted LTE wireless network that sends and receives video and data. BusPatrol processed video evidence and data on stop-arm violations in Allentown. A team of processors and data scientists evaluated the problem to prepare recommendations to the Allentown School District administrators.
Last December, a driver was sentenced for killing three children in a stop-arm violation in Fulton, Indiana. It followed a string of incidents in 2018-2019 where 14 children under the age of 10 were killed across America. The three siblings were struck when the school bus lights were flashing and the school bus stop-arm was extended. The tragedy highlighted the need for a profound change in driving culture.
“Motorists need to learn to pay attention to school buses, and proceed with care and caution in their presence,” explains Souliere. “Only when people are consistently held accountable for their careless behavior, in every neighborhood, will the culture change. Equipping every school bus with world-class safety technology is the first step.”
Once a program is implemented, ticket processing and program management will be handled by BusPatrol, all at no cost to Allentown. This is made possible through BusPatrol’s enforcement program that reinvests fines paid by violators to cover equipment and management costs. Similar programs are currently changing driving behavior in school districts across Maryland, Virginia and Georgia, while new programs are being launched in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ontario and Quebec.
BusPatrol will be actively working with officials from Allentown School District and local law enforcement to determine route planning, redistricting, fleet maintenance, real-time analysis, and financial analytics, to offer the safest and most cost-efficient method to transport students, based on this pilot. With a data-driven approach, BusPatrol is working with the Allentown community and police to offer a program that proactively mitigates ongoing safety risks that children face every day on busy Pennsylvania roads. www.buspatrol.com
