Skip to main content

Blue Bird Corporation to distribute Redflex school bus safety cameras

Arizona-headquartered Redflex Student Guardian is to partner with school bus manufacturer Blue Bird Corporation to offer safety camera systems on school buses. The Redflex Student Guardian safety camera system monitors and automatically detects drivers who illegally pass school buses while students are embarking and disembarking. The cameras are installed on the front and rear driver’s side of a school bus and are triggered to capture data when a vehicle passes the bus while the stop arm is extended and amb
February 4, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
Arizona-headquartered 112 Redflex Student Guardian is to partner with school bus manufacturer Blue Bird Corporation to offer safety camera systems on school buses.

The Redflex Student Guardian safety camera system monitors and automatically detects drivers who illegally pass school buses while students are embarking and disembarking. The cameras are installed on the front and rear driver’s side of a school bus and are triggered to capture data when a vehicle passes the bus while the stop arm is extended and amber lights are flashing. Redflex Traffic Systems reviews the data, including photos and video of the incident, and then places the data into an electronic evidence file. Local law enforcement officers review the evidence to determine whether a citation is warranted.

“Safety is behind every design and manufacturing initiative at Blue Bird. This valuable effort with Redflex provides school districts and contractors with an additional resource in further ensuring student safety, with the notable and unique element of integrated enforcement,” said Phil Horlock, president and CEO of Blue Bird Corporation. “In collaboration with Redflex, the highly effective Student Guardian safety camera system is available from all Blue Bird dealers throughout North America.”

“This swift procedure is seamless for districts and contractors, as all steps of this process are handled by Redflex. This is truly a turnkey program,” said Thomas O’Connor, president of Redflex Student Guardian, a wholly owned subsidiary of Redflex Traffic Systems.

“It’s unrealistic to think law enforcement officers can patrol hundreds of school bus routes on their own every day,” said O’Connor. “Not only do the safety cameras monitor and deter drivers from breaking the law, they raise community awareness about school bus safety in general.”

“Photo enforcement is one of the most effective ways to curb illegal school bus passing, while also holding violators accountable,” said Karen Finley, president and CEO of Redflex Traffic Systems. “Student Guardian serves as a constant reminder for drivers to stop behind every school bus and make sure those students are safe.”

Currently, nine states permit the use of automated enforcement on school bus stop arms, and legislators in seven more states are exploring opportunities for enablement. Additional states are expected to follow suit in the near future.

According to a 2012 study conducted by the Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, twenty-eight states found that more than 88,000 vehicles illegally passed 100,000 school buses in a single day representing 16 million illegal passes nationally in a typical 180-day school year. Student Guardian can be operated at no cost to taxpayers and without any upfront capital investment from cities, school districts or contractors. The Student Guardian program is fully funded by violations.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • PIPS SpeedSpike receives UK type approval
    May 18, 2012
    PIPS Technology has announced the official launch of the UK Home Office Type Approved SpeedSpike average speed enforcement system. Developed as a cost effective distance over time speed enforcement system, the system can be deployed as main road speed enforcement on motorways, urban speed enforcement in town and city centres or local short distance speed enforcement outside schools and colleges. By linking anywhere up to 1,000 cameras in any one system, PIPS says that SpeedSpike can enforce speeds ranging f
  • Making the case for interstate tolling
    May 30, 2014
    A provision in the Grow America Act, introduced to Congress last month by Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, proposes lifting a decades-old ban on tolling existing interstate general purpose lanes. According Daniel Papiernik, HNTB Corporation's mid-Atlantic toll services leader, writing in Roll Call, recent opposition to the proposal is short-sighted. He claims that relying on revenues derived from the gas tax is simply an unsustainable way of funding the nation’s aging roads, bridges and tunnels
  • Cost saving multi-agency transportation and emergency management
    May 3, 2012
    Although the recession had dramatically reduced traffic volumes in the past few years, the economy was on the brink of a recovery that portended well for jobs but poorly for traffic congestion. Leaders of four government agencies in Houston, Texas, got together to discuss how to collectively cope with the expected increase in vehicles on the road. "They knew they couldn't pour enough concrete to solve the problem, and they also knew the old model of working in a vacuum as standalone entities would fail," sa
  • IAMRoadSmart: Over a third of police use mobile safety camera vans
    February 2, 2018
    More than a third of UK police forces used mobile safety camera vans to prosecute over 8,000 drivers for not wearing seatbelts and around 1,000 with a mobile phone in their hand in, according to IAM RoadSmart’s freedom of Information request in 2016. It was submitted to 44 police forces which revealed that 16 of them used pictures from the cameras in their vans to pursue these offences as a matter of routine while a further four did so occasionally.