Florida ranks second in the U.S. for fatal school bus accidents.
The Florida Department of Education reports over 11,000 illegal passes occur every day—equivalent to nearly 2 million violations over the course of the school year.
A report released by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles showed hundreds of school bus stop-arm violations and thousands of instances of speeding in a school zone.
[RELATED STORY: Study Reveals Nearly 10,000 Speeding Violations in Jacksonville School Zones]
In Duval County, the number is around 15 students who have been hit by a vehicle. Three have died.
“Jacksonville is one of the worst areas for pedestrian safety in Florida,” said Duval School Board Member Melody Bolduc. “Nationally, we are horrible at pedestrian safety, not just our children.”
Bolduc also said that there have been several meetings underway to address this issue and look at ways to address safety routes.
Duval school officials have been promoting the “Be Safe, Be Seen” campaign to help ease accidents. The program has support from Sheriff TK Waters and should get the support of the local city council as well.
The move to make roads safer during school hours is also getting attention from the state legislature.
“This is a major concern of ours. We are reevaluating routes at the same time we’re looking at, can we keep up all these routes? And, you know, we’re looking at consolidating routes, coming up with more hubs, said Bolduc.
Could the district look at using AI, cameras, or technology to analyze dangerous spots along the school bus routes?
Bolduc says there haven’t been any major discussions on that issue but said there is a company called BusPatrol that has been supported by some local legislators like Florida State Rep. Kiyan Michael.
When a school bus is stopped, and its lights and stop-arm are activated, BusPatrol cameras capture incidents involving vehicles illegally passing the bus. Through cloud computing, data is sent to BusPatrol’s Alertbus platform. Safety experts help prepare evidence packages for law enforcement’s approval.
School officials have met with the company and have said their technology looks fantastic, and they’ll put it on our buses for free.
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