The school bus is often touted as the safest means of transportation for school children, but many countries including India are witnessing an increased rate of school bus related accidents, and fatalities involving the school going children.
Thanks to connected school bus technology, the use of advanced school bus cameras can help to reduce the safety risks to a large extent.
Here are 8 reasons why you absolutely need to install a school bus camera system in your school bus:
1.Ensure Child Safety Inside the Bus:
While at school, children are always under supervision; but once on a school bus, they are mostly unsupervised and left on their own. The inevitable fighting, shoving and boisterous behavior ensues.
But with multiple high-resolution CCTV cameras placed inside the bus, real time feeds can be accessed at a central location by the school authorities, and prompt actions can be taken in response.
The authorities can not only monitor student behavior, but also keep a look out for suspicious looking people or suspicious objects placed in the bus, and many other potential security threats.
2.Discourage Bullying:
Smaller children are the most vulnerable and can easily be intimidated by older children on the bus. But just the presence of cameras inside the bus can act as a deterrent for the older children, and discourage them to cause any harm to others.
3.Resolve Conflicts:
In case a bullying incident or any other unforeseen event does occur, it can be extremely difficult to pinpoint what or who was the source of the problem.
Instead of interviewing other children and dealing with conflicting stories, the school authorities can simply play back the camera feed to see what has actually happened. This feed can be the basis for disciplinary action by the school, and in extreme cases, can also be provided as evidence to law enforcement.
4.Empower Drivers:
The school bus drivers have to be the custodians of child safety, but the truth is – They are solely responsible for a host of things, besides driving: pre and post trip checks, school bus attendance, safe on boarding and off boarding of students, and being alert for vehicles cruising past at the bus stops.
Expecting them to actively monitor the students as well as the area around the school bus is neither fair nor practical. But with advanced 360° cameras recording everything inside as well as outside the bus, drivers no longer need to keep looking back or peering into side mirrors to note down license numbers of the passing vehicles.
They can focus on driving the kids safely to their destination.
5.Monitor Illegal Passing:
Most countries have strict laws against illegal passing, but motorists still flout them on a daily basis. In the US alone, an annual study indicated that more than 95000 vehicles pass by stopped school buses in a single day. This puts the children at a grave risk while getting on or off a school bus.
However, now this menace can be combated with Stop Arm Cameras fitted below the stop arm that start recording automatically when the stop arm is engaged.
They can record the license plate details, tag the recording with GPS information, and upload to a central server where the details can be reviewed and sent to law enforcement for legal action against the defaulters.
6.Cover Blind Spots:
It is practically impossible for drivers to see the areas immediately in front or behind the school bus by their own eyes. Mirrors may be able to help but aligning them perfectly can be a frustrating exercise.
Sadly enough, every time a school bus stops, little children could be around the immediate vicinity of the bus, or worse still, be at a risk of being hit by their own school bus.
However, these situations can be avoided if cameras are mounted at low height on both front and back of the bus.
Some advanced student detection systems can also give out voice and graphic alerts to the driver on a tablet interface, so that the driver ensures the way is clear before restarting the bus.
7.Reduce Liability:
The driver and transportation company are solely responsible for the bus and students while on the road; hence, if any security crisis or accident occurs, in the absence of any visible proof, the buck always stops at the driver and transport company.
Consequently, they may end up paying heavy insurance costs or get embroiled in unnecessary litigation. That is why having a high-resolution camera system also makes good business sense.
8.Prevent Driver Misconduct:
So often, we hear about accidents that happened because the driver was drunk, using his mobile phone, or just not paying attention to the road.
Even more shocking are incidences of sexual misconduct against children who are utterly defenseless if they happen to be the last child on board. But in the presence of cameras that cover the entire bus, no driver would dare break the rules or behave inappropriately.
Conclusion:
Thus, installing the requisite number of school bus cameras both inside and outside the school bus is not a luxury but an absolute necessity in these times.
Moreover, adopting the right school bus tracking system that seamlessly integrates camera analytics with on-board diagnostics and other telematics data can help both schools and transport companies take better informed decisions.
After all, when it comes to the safety and security of our children, can we really afford to take even the smallest of risks?
