Students that take the school bus to and from school in Suffolk County will now be protected by advanced safety technology, thanks to a new partnership with BusPatrol.
BusPatrol is a safety tech company based in Virginia which equips entire school bus fleets with stop-arm enforcement technology at zero cost to school districts or municipalities.
This will be the largest stop-arm enforcement program of its kind and more than 6,000 school buses will have access to the technology. All school districts in Suffolk County will be able to opt into the program and take action against illegal passing of school buses.
The new agreement was signed after results from a pilot program revealed that stop-arm violations were an increasing risk to school children. In 2019, BusPatrol conducted three pilot programs across New York in East Meadows, Half Hollow Hills, and Niagara Falls.
The pilot program captured more than 1,800 stop-arm violations across 17 school buses, with a staggering 4.05 stop-arm violations per bus per day in one jurisdiction. Results from the pilot program suggest that bus drivers in New York State witness an average of 12.7million stop-arm violations over a 180-day school year. Just one stop-arm violation can be fatal for a child.
As part of the partnership, BusPatrol will modernize school buses in Suffolk County at no cost. This includes the installation of cloud-connected stop-arm and safety cameras and 4G LTE connectivity.
The cost of the installation and maintenance of the stop-arm cameras will be covered by the fines collected for violations of the stop-arm law.
Jean Souliere, CEO of BusPatrol, said, “We’re excited to be working with Suffolk County on the largest stop-arm enforcement program out there. Suffolk County has shown impressive leadership in taking action against stop-arm violations and protecting local school children.
“And this isn’t just restricted to Suffolk. Last year’s pilot program showed that stop-arm violations are becoming an increasing problem across New York state. We urge other counties to step forward and drive change.”
BusPatrol will have installed its SafetyTech solutions on over 50,000 school buses across North America by the end of 2020, including those to be installed on buses in Suffolk County.