New “green” school buses seem to make headlines fairly regularly, yet there is still a sense of excitement when a school district receives them for the first time — as transportation staff at Niagara Wheatfield Central School District found when they received four brand-new, clean-diesel buses from IC Bus this month.
After Leonard Bus Sales Service Manager Kevin Toal and three others arrived at the district’s garage to welcome the IC Bus CE Series buses with the new Cummins ISB6.7 diesel engines, they were surprised by the huge reception.
“When we pulled into their facility, we were immediately swarmed by a crowd of personnel that included business officials, supervisors, mechanics, and drivers,” said Toal. “They were so overwhelmed with excitement and joy that it was awesome to experience.”
That day Niagara Wheatfield CSD became one of the first school districts in New York, and perhaps the nation, to take receipt of the new IC Bus brand buses with the Cummins engines. Leonard Bus Sales’ district partners have been able to order the CE Series buses with either the MaxxForce engines or the Cummins ISB engine since last October, but the Cummins-powered buses just began arriving at customer locations in the past few weeks.
Today’s clean diesel buses are 20 times cleaner than the diesel buses of just a decade ago, so this influx of new clean diesel buses will, among other things, help Niagara Wheatfield significantly “green-up” their fleet. According to the EPA, new clean-diesel school buses have reduced emissions of nitric oxide (NOx) and particulate matter by 98 percent compared with buses built just 10 years ago, while decreasing hydrocarbon emissions by almost 90 percent.
“Our district needed new buses, and wanted to improve our fleet’s overall efficiency, without sacrificing the safety or quality,” said Leslie Buczkowski, the district’s transportation Supervisor. “The team at Leonard Bus sales helped us do that with new clean diesel buses, and we are looking forward to a great relationship with them.”
Operation Safe Stop
Leonard Bus Sales was on hand April 3 as members of the school bus industry, state transportation officials and law enforcement united to draw attention to school bus stop safety at the state’s annual Operation Safe Stop Day in Latham, N.Y. Organized by the New York Association for Pupil Transportation, this year’s event welcomed representatives from the state Department of Transportation, Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, state, local and county law enforcement, school districts, and school bus industry professionals.
The Operation Safe Stop Day event focused on the education and enforcement campaign targeting drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses. An estimated 50,000 motorists illegally pass stopped school buses every day in New York State alone.
“Safety is foremost in our minds at Leonard Bus Sales,” said Jon Leonard of Leonard Bus Sales, who represented the New York State Bus Distributors Association at the event. “As a company and an industry, we work to promote school bus safety every day of the year. So we were delighted to participate in the annual Operation Safe Stop Day and help draw attention to school bus stop traffic laws.”
