Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), spoke with NAPT® and School BUSRide about maintaining the school bus industry’s vital safety culture amid the challenges of COVID-19. Landsberg also discussed the NATP’s ambitious Zip. Zero. Nada. None. campaign, as well as the critical role which safety technology and training will play in eliminating school transportation fatalities nationwide.
Tell us about your professional background. How did you come to be chosen by the President for this appointment to the NTSB?
I spent 45 years as a pilot and fl ight instructor, working in general aviation and corporate aviation training. The jobs involved aviation and management at several organizations, which involved both communications and conducting safety seminars. I failed in retirement retiring, because one of my Washington colleagues recommended me to NTSB and the White House. It is a good fit because the NTSB Vice Chairman is the one of the least political positions in Washington, and safety is completely non-partisan which suits me perfectly.
How does the culture of safety in school transportation compare to the culture in aviation?
The goals are the same. The main objective, regardless of the transportation mode, is zero fatalities — zero. Zip. Nada. None.
We cannot completely eliminate crashes or incidents for any vehicle mode, but we can manage them. If you start with that mindset — safety across the board — it serves well.
The school bus transportation environment is a bit less regulated than aviation, but not much. In aviation, pilots are certified or tested regularly, and there is not much outside interference aside from weather. The school bus environment, however, features children, other drivers, and the American highway. Highways are the least-regulated area of all modes of transportation. In many ways, this makes pupil transportation providers’ jobs much harder.
However, aviation and highway operations professionals can absolutely learn from each other. Safety management is a journey, and never a true destination. We can always learn more and get better. Whenever you think you have achieved perfection, Murphy’s Law has a way of proving you wrong.
When the COVID pandemic became a national emergency, our principle focus was to achieve zero fatalities in school transportation by 2025 — the “Zip. Zero. Nada. None.” initiative. We believe it was and is the most ambitious, but also most achievable, goal in the transportation industry. Now that COVID has created an “all-hands-on-deck” crisis, where disease prevention is the mandated national safety and health priority, how can we simultaneously keep our important safety culture alive?
The basics of operating school buses do not change because of the pandemic. The laws of physics, as far as I know, have not been suspended. We still have the same challenges that were there before COVID, and the goals should not change.
Meanwhile, human behavior is as predictably bad as ever. We should be paying attention to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have been explained multiple times. Some will complain that the guidelines have changed over time, or become contradictory, but one of the best management mantras ever is, “I reserve the right to get smarter.” As any organization or individual learns new information, it or they should be able to adapt based on data and science, and not on personal opinions.
Nothing has really changed relative to how we safely operate school buses. What has evolved are the methods by which we manage passengers and prevent disease transmission — but we must pay attention to the clear directions we have now.
The COVID pandemic hit the school bus industry early and hard as schools closed nationwide. Even as some schools begin to open, many parents are hesitant to put their children on school buses — not to mention that many drivers themselves are fearful for their own safety, even with extraordinary safety precautions in place.
As states and school districts struggle to predict what the future holds for bus operations, how do you see this playing out?
First, a safe and effective COVID vaccine is needed. Then, vaccinations should be required for anyone who is in any kind of social education environment, including on buses.
Our situation will gradually return to a different “normal” than the old one. When that happens is anyone’s guess, but it will likely be after vaccines are widely available.
However, many dark clouds have silver linings. The pandemic will significantly reduce other viral infections that plague us, such as the so-called “common” colds and flu. If everyone starts thinking about sanitization and disease prevention more often, we may begin to see a healthier society overall.
It going to be tough in the short-term, but we can improve the situation with long-term planning. Pupil transportation providers must be able to insist upon vaccinations (once they become available) for anyone riding a school bus — along with other safe behaviors like hand washing and mask compliance.
Has the NTSB adjusted how it intends to operate in this new COVID-centric world? Are there operational changes in terms of crash investigations and how findings will be handled?
We began working remotely in late February. We continue to assess the situation on a week-by-week basis, so that we can help ensure that our staff and regional investigators are not exposed to a COVID risk. We try to practice what we preach in that risk assessment.
Prior to every launch, or potential launch, we have developed a risk-assessment checklist. Some common items include: Where is the incident? Is it in a COVID hotspot? What kind of transportation will our regional investigator or support staff have to take to get there? Will they need to go on public transportation? What kind of interaction between local responders and our investigators have at the incident site? Lodging and food, requirements are reviewed and staff is provided with personal protective equipment.
In many cases, staff launches — if assuming the risk assessment says it’s safe to do so. In other cases, the first responders and local officials go secure the immediate scene. NTSB provides guidance on what to collect and how to move the wreckage to a secure location.
NTSB will then send an investigator to that secure location a week or so afterward to analyze the wreckage in isolation and start to figure out what transpired.
NTSB continues to meet our statutory requirements but will not put our people at undue risk.
Given parents’ concerns, the school transportation system is not operating at full capacity. Far less on-road exposure typically comes with reduced risk and, therefore, fewer serious crashes. Even so, some incidents may merit NTSB investigation. For those, what technologies are key to maintaining the safety advantage?
NTSB is still recommending fire detection and suppression systems on all school buses, as we always have, and there are retrofits available. This is even more critical on older vehicles.
Another point, which we have been recommending now for over a decade, is three-point seat belts. We continue to see that as a critical item in preventing injuries and fatalities.
The objections typically are, “We’ve got compartmentalization on our vehicles, and that solves the problem.” Compartmentalization works well in the case of a frontal or rear impact, but it performs poorly in rollover or T-bone crashes. It is not sufficient protection for students onboard.
For incident prevention on school buses, inward- and outward-facing cameras are very helpful for good documentation. Drivers are aware that they are being watched and will be held accountable.
While speaking in front of the NAPT last year, we spoke at length about stop-arm cameras. While preparing for speech, I was absolutely appalled at the number of stop-arm violations that happen daily. It is unacceptable.
A few districts around the country have stop-arm cameras on all buses. I do not have the hard data, but I predict that those locations will have many fewer stop-arm violations than they previously reported.
We must educate students and drivers – including bus drivers and automobile drivers – about how to behave around a school bus. Enforcement is also required; without it, no one pays attention to rulemaking.
Recurrent or refresher training is also critical. We live by this practice in aviation. Even with highly experienced pilots, airline crews undergo a complete refresher training process every six months to 12 months.
Likewise, we must remind drivers and students about proper bus behavior, with special attention on boarding and exiting protocols. Amid the COVID shutdowns, some of those important lessons have likely faded from students’ memories.
At our conference last year, our members said they found your presentation informative and inspirational. Like many Americans, a lot of pupil transportation providers, have become accustomed to the steady stream of bad COVID-19 news. How can our members stay motivated and focused on child safety?
When operating a vehicle, we need to stay absolutely focused on what we are doing – whether it’s an airplane, ship or school bus. In any moving vehicle there are inherent risks.
The COVID situation will pass, eventually. But just one crash can ruin dozens of lives, so we must ensure that this does not happen.
I am inspired by my parents — they were part of “the greatest generation” in World War II. They faced challenges much greater than we have, and the U.S. can take inspiration from them. Our country can get there, but it will require a little bit of grit. Just because things are not as good as they were a year ago, it does not mean that there’s np road forward. It is going to take some effort, so let us all dig down to make that happen.
Do you have any other thoughts to share, as a safety leader trying to do an important job in unprecedented times?
Stay the course. Look for opportunities. Don’t become distracted, particularly in your thought processes. As humans, we only have a single-core processor. We do not multitask as well as cell phones or computers. Focus on the most important thing: getting our students to and from school safely.
Stay proactive. Try to do a little better all the time. Whether that is a personal relationship, driving a school bus, or managing a school transportation system, we can always get a little bit better. That is what keeps things interesting and keeps us moving forward.