Extra Layers of Child Safety

It’s hard to know just how thoroughly the school bus system has simplified the process of getting children to and from school every day. It allows millions of parents to get their kids to school without taking time off work; it keeps a huge number of cars off the roads around schools twice a day; and it ensures that even children in families without reliable transportation make it to classes. But as with any system that serves a very large number of customers, there are bound to be mistakes and accidents here and there. School bus related accidents are particularly tragic, because victims are nearly always children—the very ones who need to be protected most.

GPS integration is seeking to minimize accidents by providing an extra layer of safety to existing tools. From standard speed monitors, to route verification, to after-hours bus security, GPS may be the key needed to bring the annual number of school bus accidents closer to zero.

The Hard Numbers

The following table provides, at a glance, enough information for a rough picture of current school bus safety in the United States:

Children transported by bus each school day	26 million	Out of 50 million total attending school
Current number of school buses	480,000	Each bus keeps an estimated 36 cars off the road
Number of children left on buses after end of route in 2012	70
School bus passenger fatalities in 2010 due to crashes	10 (plus 6 drivers)	An additional 113 fatalities (in other vehicles or pedestrians) were caused by school bus crashes

In statistical terms, the injury/fatality rate is extremely low, and the school bus industry deserves high praise for such a stellar record. But in human terms, any child (or adult) injury is a tragedy, and it is worth additional research and technology to try to eliminate them completely. This is why progress on GPS integration specifically designed for school buses continues to make the news.

The Latest Developments

One of the most recent new products intended to boost school bus safety is a collaboration between two different companies. The first has an established history of protecting kids on buses: Check-Mate created a device that reminds drivers to walk through their bus at the end of the route to visually confirm that there are no sleeping or hiding children still on the vehicle. Children who are still on the bus when it is locked for the night face danger from hunger, dehydration, and extreme temperatures. Check-Mate makes it harder for drivers to forget their final check, and has been installed on nearly 250,000 buses since its introduction in 1993.

Zonar, a company that creates GPS products for fleets, has designed a device that would support Check-Mate’s security system. There are at least two main issues that could prevent Check-Mate from protecting children:

• Children or even vandals who enter the bus after the driver’s final walk-through are not detected


• The Check-Mate device could fail to work because of lack of power or malfunctioning equipment

GPS integration provides an added level of security by monitoring the bus and the activity on it. First, the Zonar device checks the Check-Mate device to confirm that it is operational (a procedure cleverly titled “Double-Check”). But after hours, the Zonar device continues to watch the bus, sending an alert to a designated official if there is activity. In addition to spotting any forgotten children still on the bus, the system would also catch potential thieves, vandals, and teenagers looking for trouble. Officials at Zonar and Check-Mate are optimistic that their partnership will make buses safer both during and after working hours.

Other Safety Tools

A further layer of security is provided by a personal card that each student carries. The card, equipped with a RFID chip, registers each time the student enters and exits the bus. This tool provides important information about individual children, but only works when each student has the card on their person.

Of course, buses are more dangerous when they are actually traveling on the roadways. GPS integration is even more useful in that context, with fleet monitors that can record very detailed information about bus activity. A driver that stops too suddenly, drives too fast, veers from the prescribed route, makes unauthorized stops, or cruises through a stop sign will face some questioning from his supervisor. And a bus that is involved in an accident or breakdown in a remote area will receive assistance right away, with alerts sent to fleet managers and/or emergency personnel.

The safety of our children is certainly one of the highest goals that GPS integration researchers can strive for. With the implementation of the Zonar/Check Mate system, there are sure to be dozens of families in the coming years that are spared the injury or death of a child.

Extra Layers of Child Safety