Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) announced the availability of four videos to educate school bus drivers on making proper decisions when driving near tracks and trains.
The aim, OLI said on Thursday, is to help bus drivers make safe choices when navigating railroads crossings along their routes.
OLI is a nonprofit rail safety education and awareness organization dedicated to stopping track tragedies through public awareness and education campaigns.
The videos offer clear information and actionable safety procedures for school bus drivers, according to OLI. The video package, “Decide Smart, Arrive Safe,” offers free instructions for school bus drivers providing vital safety information for transportation professionals to avoid crossing incidents, help stop track tragedies and save lives.
“Know the Signs and Signals” focuses on important signals around railroad crossing that bus drivers may encounter.
“Know the Facts” addresses train safety facts that drivers should be aware of to keep themselves and others safe around railroad crossings.
“In Their Own Words” presents a demonstration of safe railroad crossing procedures for drivers and puts emphasis on peer-to-peer communication.
“5 Alive!” demonstrates five essential steps school bus drivers should take to make every crossing a safe one.
Other resources such as a school bus driver guide, a student guide for bus driver trainees, and a post-training quiz, are also available. Rachel Maleh, OLI’s executive director, said that while crossing incidents involving school buses are infrequent, this new resource can help stop track tragedies.
In the past 125 years, about 192 deaths and 546 injuries occurred due to school bus-train collisions. However, the rates of these incidents have been significantly reduced due to OLI’s training and industry standards — these include stopping at all railroad crossings, opening the loading doors, reducing noise inside the bus as it approaches the tracks, and scanning both sides of the bus down the railroad tracks to ensure a train is not coming before crossing, etc.
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