A Safe Route
May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy
Schools and universities must ensure the safety of students and staff as they travel to, from and on campus.
For more secure traveling, the university's police force provides an escort patrol vehicle for students, faculty or staff members from 6 p.m. to midnight. Officers also offer a walking escort service for people going to a spot on campus that is not along the escort vehicle routes.
At the University of Texas in Austin, the school's transportation services department has teamed up with the city's police and its transit service to provide a kind of designated driver for students. The Eating and Entertainment Bus, also called the E-bus, gives students, staff and faculty who have a university ID free rides to and from Austin's entertainment district on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights (from 8:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.).
Belt debate
The safety feature most identifiable to car drivers and passengers — the seat belt — is not required on most school buses, as a debate continues over whether they are necessary or worth the cost.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has decided that “compartmentalization” is the best crash protection for riders on large school buses. “Through compartmentalization, occupant crash protection is provided by a protective envelope consisting of strong, closely-spaced seats that have energy-absorbing seat backs,” the NHTSA says.
Still, several states require lap-shoulder safety belts on school buses. Although it is not calling for seat belts on large buses, the U.S. Transportation Department has proposed requiring three-point belts on smaller buses (less than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight). The department also wants to raise the minimum height of seat backs to 24 inches, 4 inches higher than the existing rule.
Kennedy, staff writer, can be reached at mkennedy@asumag.com.
Number of school buses transporting U.S. students.
25.1 million
Number of U.S. students who regularly ride school buses.
4.8 billion
Number of miles traveled per year by U.S. school buses.
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation
Training for bus security
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has developed a safety program to help school bus drivers and other school personnel identify potential security problems.
The School Transportation Security Awareness program was developed with the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, the National Association of Pupil Transportation and the National School Transportation Association.
“It is designed to provide school bus drivers, administrators and staff members with information that will enable them to effectively identify and report perceived security threats, as well as the skills to appropriately react and respond to a security incident should it occur,” the TSA says.
The topics covered: defining terrorism and terrorists; identifying threatening people and situations; potential weapons and probability of use; joint planning between organizations and leadership.
The program consists a 24-minute DVD of a simulated school bus hijacking and web-based, self-study modules offered in both English and Spanish. The agency offers the program at no cost to any school division and school transportation entity that requests it. (See www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/tsnm/highway/stsa.shtm for more information).
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