School Bus Transportation News at STN Media

Your Eyewitness

How DVRs Are Helping School Bus Security

A parent calls the district transportation supervisor screaming that she’s going to sue the school because her child’s driver closed the bus doors on her arm and started to drive away. The driver says nothing like this happened.

Perhaps the only thing transportation directors are more used to hearing than complaints about late buses is this kind of he-said-she-said scenario. But, improved technology has helped digital video recorders (DVRs) become a driver’s personal eye witness.

“In the past behavior management was the issue, now we can use it for much more,” said Rob Scott, vice president of sales and marketing for 24/7 Security.

Trial by Fire
For at least one school district, a recently installed DVR became a powerful training tool.

The kindergarten students on a Richland District Two school bus were riding home from a day at the Columbia, S.C. zoo when a passenger noticed a strange smell and saw thin smoke wisp in through the rear window. Two lines in the rear engine had rubbed together and ignited an oil line. As the driver pulled to a stop the bus began to fill with dense black smoke, and the driver and adults onboard quickly ushered children off. With all the students safe, the driver went back to check every seat and make sure every child was safe.

Minutes later, flames gutted the bus. While only charred skeletal seats and window frames remained inside, the SEON DVR survived to show the perfectly executed evacuation.

Just weeks before the fire, the district replaced its older, VCR-based system.
That system would likely have burnt in the fire, said Wendell Shelton, the district’s transportation manager. That is, if it even recorded properly.

Shelton said the old VCR systems weren’t reliable. Between heat, humidity and the vibration of traveling down limerock roads, he often found nothing but static on his tapes when the buses returned to the garage. “I knew there had to be a better solution.” he said.

With a DVR, Shelton can record two weeks worth of data on a single hard drive and easily share it with district officials and all of his drivers. In this instance, he was even able to give his driver an award and a bonus for performing such a flawless evacuation.

“Still photos demonstrate why its important to get out in a hurry, but the video shows how you can really do it,” Shelton said.

Stepping up from VHS
Richland isn’t the only district stepping up its high-tech solutions.

Most of the time, video recorders work perfectly. Most bus trips pass without incident. But if a system fails on the one day it’s needed, it can mean serious trouble for the school district.

Steve Belden, president of Zepco Sales and Services in Richardson, Texas, said he’s seen more customers replacing their VCR systems with DVR systems. Over the last six years, systems have gotten smaller, cheaper and more reliable.

“But, customers who put cost alone first often regret it,” Belden says.

Switching from VHS to DVR also allows districts to record higher-resolution video longer and from more cameras. While older, VHS-based recorders improved on the previous generations by allowing multiple-cameras, when two cameras were plugged into one system, the recording had to cycle between the two. If an incident happened on one camera while the VCR was recording the other, the incident was permanently lost. With DVRs districts say they can get reliable video from as many as eight cameras every time.

Pupil transporters aren’t the only ones putting a premium on absolute reliability. Gatekeeper’s latest DVR is currently flying over Iraq and Afghanistan, where it’s used to record video and flight data. Gatekeeper uses internal software to cool the hard drive and correct errors almost instantly. These same features that keep video rolling at 30,000 feet are available to school districts.

“There’s no difference in the want of an AC-130 gunship pilot and a school bus driver,” Gatekeeper National Sales Manager Bruce Nicholson said.

Tools for Behavior Management
But most districts are using their DVRs to fight more mundane problems like vandalism.

When one of his drivers complained about two girls tearing up brand new seats, Merle Burnett, the director of maintenance and transportation for Blytheville School District in Blytheville, Ark., turned to the Gatekeeper DVR on his bus.

On the video, Burnett saw the two girls turning the brand-new upholstery into confetti over one week’s time.

He loaded the damaged seat into the back of his pickup and drove to the girls’ junior high. Just before lunch, he set the seat in the middle of the cafeteria and, as students trickled in he got on the PA and announced, “Someone is paying for this seat today.” Before the day was out, he called the girls into the principal’s office, played the video and told them they were suspended from the bus. If they wanted to return, they would have to pay for the seat cover. When one of the girl’s parents complained, all he had to do was show her the video and she opened up her checkbook.

“I’ve had them all, but the Gatekeeper is the best help I’ve had as a transportation director,” Burnett said.

Next Generation Technology
Increasingly, DVR companies are integrating even more features from other technologies to help to transportation directors like Burnett.

Companies like Verint and Radio Engineering Industries are offer the ability to wirelessly download video from the DVR to computers at the garage. Using WiFi systems similar to the ones now available in homes and cafes, districts can program their systems to download the day’s video from each bus to district computers as they pull into the garage.

Features like GPS, onboard recording devices and emergency cell phones were once separate systems. AngelTrax president Richie Howard says he saw this as an opportunity to give districts everything they wanted in a single package.

In its latest DVR, AngelTrax combines video recording, GPS and cellular technology in one box. If there’s an emergency, district supervisors can track their buses live on the Web. To make sure help is always within reach, a driver can tap a button on the dash and the integrated cell phone will automatically call pre-programmed numbers. When the buses return to the depot, they can even remove the DVR, plug it into a computer and use the DVR and time-coded GPS locations to see what happened on the bus and where.

Verint National Sales Manager Steve Rupe noted that while some of these technologies first emerged for law enforcement, public transit and other security-critical fields, they are quickly making their way into school buses. Verint’s next generation of products will integrate GPS, vehicle signal data, child reminder alarms and even boarding information.

Down the road, Verint may even be able to use smarter cameras. Improving computer technology will let school districts count students as they got on the bus and may be able to recognize students by their face. As more districts become more wired, transportation directors will be able to get video from the bus without leaving their office. At least one city has used their county-wide wireless network to feed video directly to police and school transportation officials. As more cities become more connected, districts may one day even be able to watch live video as it records the route from their offices.