Child Safety Network (CSN) announced it has created the Safe Bus Safety Network, a program designed to bring safety enhancements to schools with limited funds so they can implement changes on their own.
The program includes driver training, GPS and parental notification alerts available free of charge to schools nationwide via corporate sponsorship to decrease accidents and student injuries.
“As we analyzed the causes of the fatalities and injuries to children, there are a number of areas we can address to prevent these in the future,” CSN founder Ward Leber said. “Everyone involved has a role to play to make school busing safer. Our plan is to improve the safe practices of the drivers, the kids, the parents and the general public.”
In addition to free GPS and parental notification alerts, CSN Safe Bus offers school districts six training modules from the School Bus Safety Company. These include advanced driver training, transporting special needs students and bullying prevention, which the company said has reduced injuries by more than 30 percent in the 2,700 districts nationwide that use the programs.
“We are proud to be working with CSN towards this goal to make school busing even safer,” said Jeff Cassell, president of School Bus Safety Company. “CSN has been a leading organization in the effort to protect children for more than 23 years. They are taking action to protect the kids, not just talking about it – well done.”
The program is free of charge to school districts, school boards and parents because of corporate sponsorship but, according to the CSN Safe Bus website, it is not school bus advertising. Instead, CSN said the sponsor may only receive recognition on each bus in exchange for providing specific free child safety technology, training and programs to the districts. CSN also said it discourages participation by sponsors that wish to influence the buying decisions of children. The sponsor recognition on the bus as well as in the parental alert would also be subject to approval by the school board.
According to CSN’s website, current sponsors include AT&T; Google; Nickelodeon; Proctor & Gamble; Verizon Wireless; and Walmart, among others.
As a result, districts would receive 50 percent of the revenue from the ads, and would also have the option to install video cameras on school buses to catch illegal passers. This program could add additional revenue to school coffers.
“This is an added incentive,” added Ward, “but our goal is not to be a fundraiser. It’s to cover the costs for the school district and the parents so kids are safer and the district has another source of income.”
Meanwhile, the automated parental notification system would be an additional option for parents to opt into and receive email, text or smartphone app alerts on the arrival of the school bus. Parents could learn of delays tied to weather, traffic, emergencies or other causes. All buses at participating districts would have GPS installed for tracking. When a bus passes a certain geofence on a route, the GPS would look up contact information for parents of students in the area and transmit their child’s location and time of arrival. Added benefits for districts, said CSN, are reducing operating costs and monitoring driver behavior.
CSN said the GPS would expand the reach of the federal drug-free school zone law, which doubles fines for those convicted of selling drugs near schools. The technology would extend this to include school bus stops and the 4 billion miles that school buses travel nationwide each year.
The program also includes a national television and radio ad campaign that targets motorists who illegally pass stopped school buses. A public service announcement radio spot featuring journalist Larry King is currently available.
King begins the spot by asking motorists an important question: do they think an appointment, phone call or text message is more important than the life of a child? The answer, King says, is “no.” Still, he points out that 81 million motorists illegally pass school buses each year while loading or unloading students.
“So please, if you’re already running late, stay late. And if you see a big yellow bus, give the kids a break,” King concludes.
CSN said more than 200 celebrities have agreed to record television and radio spots that call attention to the dangers of distracted driving around school buses. According to CSN, they include: Dustin Hoffman, Celine Dion, Taylor Swift, Kieffer Sutherland, Michael Jordan, Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell and Tony Danza.
The CSN website says the organization began in 1989 to make the U.S. a safer place to live for kids by acting as a “network” to help implement charitable programs and services to reduce the likelihood of abuse, abduction, exploitation and injury. This includes work with the U.S. House and Senate, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Postal Service, and the United Nations.
