Kanawha County Schools in Charleston, West Virginia, is adding radar sensors to more school buses in the fleet to assist with ensuring student safety in the so-called “Danger Zone” at bus stops.
The Student Detection System, or SDS, from Rostra Procision Controls was installed on the district’s Safety Bus, which launched last year as a pilot program to debut and test different safety equipment and train drivers.
A control box installed next to the bus driver illuminates a red signal and sounds an audible beep when the system detects a person within the danger zone. SDS is used in conjunction with an external video camera that provides the driver an actual view of blind spots.
Kanawha Director of Transportation Brette Fraley, speaking with School Transportation News, said that the SDS was originally an educational tool to teach students how to safely get on and off the school bus so that the driver could see where they were located.
The district successfully petitioned the West Virginia Department of Education for additional detection systems in order to learn how the technology performs in the real world and receive bus driver feedback. Recently, Kanawha added a 10-sensor system to two school buses.
“There is no substitute for safety, and incorporating technology into the bus makes sense,” Fraley said. “We are looking forward to reviewing the outcome of the system to see how it works for our drivers, how it responds to the weather in West Virginia and how we feel the technology is best used.”
These detection systems are slowly making headway in other states. For example, a new law in New Jersey passed earlier this year requires the sensors on all school buses.
