BELTON, Mo. – Safe Fleet, a leading provider of safety solutions for fleet vehicles, announced the launch of its groundbreaking Stop Arm Violation Enforcement System (SAVES) last week at the Florida Association for Pupil Transportation Annual Conference. Set to transform school bus safety, SAVES leverages advanced AI technology to capture and process stop-arm violations with unparalleled accuracy, providing comprehensive evidence to aid in deterring future incidents and protecting students.
SAVES provides enhanced accuracy in capturing evidence or illegal-passing violations with precision. Using strategically placed cameras on the sides of the school bus, including ALPR (Automated License Plate Recognition) and context cameras, SAVES effectively delivers evidence of violations through a comprehensive evidence package.
Data collected by the SAVES system is available via a visual dashboard, helping identify violation hotspots. These data insights aid school districts in routing school buses away from high-risk locations and offer actionable data to law enforcement agencies for enforcement and monitoring.
“At Safe Fleet, we strive to make our children’s journey to and from school as safe as possible,” said Mike Hagan, Senior VP, Passenger Transportation, Law & Waste. “SAVES is not just a technological advancement; it’s a critical tool in our mission to protect students and change driver behavior. By integrating AI and advanced algorithms we’re setting a new standard in school bus safety technology and working tirelessly to reduce the risk of stop arm violations.”
SAVES is the latest product in Safe Fleet’s Illegal Passing Suite, a three-step approach to increasing student safety around the bus:
Improve Visibility: Safe Fleet’s iconic illuminated stop arms and LED driver alerts make the bus more visible, notifying motorists they need to stop
Proactive Alerts: The Safe Fleet Predictive Stop Arm® is the only system on the market that uses radar, predictive analytics and AI to assess danger and audibly warn students it’s not safe to cross
Enforce Safe Driving: SAVES by Safe Fleet automatically captures and processes stop-arm violations to aid in issuing citations and deter future incidents
The Urgency of the Issue
School buses are the safest way for students to travel to and from school, yet their safety is most at risk when they cross the street to board or disembark. Recent statistics from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) reveal a troubling increase in such incidents, with an estimated 43.5 million illegal passes occurring across the United States in the 2022-2023 school year, marking a more than 4% rise from the previous year.
Recent legislation enacted in Florida (and 23 other states) allows for the use of video evidence to enforce stop-arm violations, holding violators accountable and hopefully reducing the number of incidents in the future.
Osceola, Collier, Lee, Alachua, and Flagler school districts in Florida are currently piloting the SAVES system.
Randy Wheeler, Assistant Transportation Director for Osceola School District adds: “With the system installed on just three buses since December, we’ve detected over 500 violations. That’s terrifying to us as school bus operators. This system presents an opportunity to help modify motorist behavior with the goal of improving the safety of students.”
To learn more about SAVES and the Illegal Passing Suite of technology visit the Safe Fleet website at: https://www.safefleet.net/illegal-passing-suite/.
About Safe Fleet:
Headquartered in Belton, MO, Safe Fleet is the leading provider of safety solutions for fleet vehicles. Safe Fleet designs, manufactures, sells, installs, and services Smart Safety Solutions™ that save lives, reduce injuries and make fleet operators more productive. Over 400,000 school buses in North America are equipped for safety with Safe Fleet’s iconic Stop arms and emergency escape roof hatches, and 1 in 3 school districts trust Safe Fleet’s video surveillance systems to capture and record onboard activity. By unifying best-in-class brands into an integrated safety platform, Safe Fleet is committed to driving safety forward for today’s and tomorrow’s fleets. For more information visit www.safefleet.net.
