02/08/2010
SCHOOL BUS SAFETY SIGNS – PARENTS NEED TO READ THIS
LOCAL AUTHORITIES NEED TO CHANGE THIS
FRONT SIGN
I urge you to look at the sign in the front windscreen of your school bus.
Do you think it is big enough considering the vast expanse of glass?
Where is it positioned?
Middle, top. Left hand side, close to the door!!!
Would this be noticed by drivers approaching the school bus. When it is positioned close to the door
Stand on the opposite of the road facing the bus, how well do you see the sign is an indication of how well an approaching drivers does, at speed often
The minimum size front windscreen safety sign is 300 x 300 mm. this is on a windscreen of a bus/coach approx 2m x 3m even up to 4 x 5 m with a 6 metre viewing range for the driver.
A huge windscreen with a tiny sign taking up a mere 300 mm either way
It smaller than a hard hat sign on a building site at 300 x 400mm or an ice cream sign on the pavement at 460 x783mm.
Why would any bus company use the smallest sign available, why would any Local Authority allow this to happen, there is no legal limit size to the sign, a bigger sign can be fitted.
In that case we ask why they are not fitted.
Why would a sign advertising ice cream be smaller than a safety sign on a bus, or in fact a mandatory hard hat sign on a site.
BACK SIGN
Now I urge you to look at the safety sign on the back of the school bus . size 450x450 usually, once gain there is no legal size, it can be any size.
The Dept of Transport has no fixed regualtions on this, WHY?
NOW this is what Transport Scotland states
> The regulation simply requires the sign to be “plainly visible” to road users ahead and behind the vehicle and does not provide any further guidance. In my view if there is other text obscuring the sign then it is not plainly visible but the exact placement is a matter for the bus operator and local authority to agree upon
Once again badly thought out regulations, similar to not removing the school bus sign
Please look at where the sign is positioned, do you think it is plainly visible.
If a car is parked in front of it , a van , lorry or other bus, even when pupils are leaving the bus..
It sometimes very high, or very low, sometimes on the middle, sometimes on the bottom r/h/side corner, this is the worst place as it fully masked by vehicles at the rear of the bus..
Sometimes behind tinted windows
So we have a small sign to the front, on a huge windscreen , hardly visible at times to on coming drivers
A larger on to the rear, often masked by other vehicles
WE NOW HAVE THE PERFECT SENARIO FOR AN ACCIDENT
School bus safety, it’s a laugh in every way.
School bus safety once again way down the list
School bus safety your local authority can change, but wont!
That is until there is an accident & hands are wrung in anguish
COUNCIL STUFF
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CONGRATULATIONS TO EAST RIDING OF YOURKSHIRE COUNCIL
Its amazing what people can do when they put heads together & have an open mind
School buses/coaches in East Yorkshire have been fitted with flashing lights to help prevent accidents as children step off and cross the road.
Lights on the council coaches flash when youngsters alight to alert approaching drivers.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council said pupils were at risk when they got off a school bus/coach and then crossed the road.
The project will run for 12 months and if successful commercial operators will be urged to copy the system.
Councillor Symon Fraser said the flashing lights were particularly important with the onset of winter
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DISTURBING NEWS RE THE NEW ABERDEENSHIRE SCHOOL CONTRACTS
It seems the bus operators that provide school transport have been told, in not in so many words., THIS WAS AT A MEETING TODAY
Allegedly Money is short!
Does this mean unless the bus operators put IN a lower price, they can kiss their contract goodbye?
But they do have to use best value , but as we have already pointed out, as has the Government, this does not MEAN the cheapest!
Although i am begining to hear this from other local authorities now, no money.
If this is the case the Goverment needs to look at the way it funds other organsations & quangoes,with thousands of pounds for a few hours work each week.
Then decide, after 30 years of spending nothing, do we now have to spend money on improving safety for pupils on the school bus.
We will not stand quitely by on this subject!
I really begin to feel sorry for some of these operators, how can you run a business when you are continually being told to cut prices.
WE HOPE THE PROMISES MADE TO OURSELVES & STEWART STEVENSON WILL BE KEPT.
TIME WILL TELL!
WE DO HOWEVER RECOGNISE ANY MAJOR EXPENDITURE SHOULD BE GOVERNMENT FUNDED, IT IS UNFAIR TO EXPECT HUGE SAFETY SCHEMES TO COME OUT OF A DEPLETED BUDGET
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We now see the second part of the Pilot See Me safety initiative, will we ever see it?
I dont know, but unless it protects every child i dont think its worth the expense
NO ONE IS SAYING
How can anyone support a scheme that gives one child a better chance of safety & survival than another, regardless what road they are on, or where they live.
NO ONE IS SAYING
As we say improve what you already have, the school bus, make it more visable, THAT WAY DRIVERS CANT MISS IT
We will still continue to press forward with all we have asked for, also adopting any other schemes which are put forward if they provide safer transport & are achievable.
We believe that they will greatly contribute to school transport safety,our only goal is safer buses for children, thereby saving lives, nothing less & nothing more.
Its as simple as making the vehicle they travel in more visible & ensuring the public are more aware when children are being carried, to that end we still insist the safety sign must be removed.
WE ALSO NEED IT TO BE LARGER, BRIGHTER & FLASHING & WHY NOT, IT CAN BE DONE
In due course drivers will then become used to the fact, the bus is not transporting adults on a jolly somewhere, but that the sign means exactly what it was designed for, a bus carrying children.
We will continue to press ahead with this
