Connecticut Adopts New School Bus Standard Requiring Crossing Control Arms

(May 4, 2007) — Connecticut became the latest state to require all school buses to be equipped with crossing control arms mounted at the right front bumper.

The crossing control arms, or gates, extend 10 to 12 feet in front of the bus at the right front bumper to force students into the driver's view during street crossing.

Newly manufactured school buses sold in the state bus meet the requirement by June 1, 2007, and all existing school buses must be retrofitted with the crossing control arm by Sept. 1, 2008. The crossing gates extend the front of the bus to force students to cross 10 to 12 feet in front of the vehicle so the driver can see them. Twenty-one other states had previously passed the requirement. They are optional for the rest of the country but are required in some individual municipalities.

According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System released annually by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an average of 16 to 18 students are killed each year in the school bus loading and unloading zone, many of whom are struck and killed by the bus itself. In February as part of its "Love the Bus" campaign, the American School Bus Council issued recommended guidelines for all school buses, including the existence of the crossing control arm.

The Connecticut School Transportation Association in its most recent newsletter said the change, adopted on April 24 by the state General Assembly's Regulation Review Committee as a new standard for school bus construction, represented "the first major overhaul of the school bus standards since 1993."