SCHOOL BUS

The school bus is a purely American invention. Today, this phrase signifies an entire industry and even a whole world with its own rules, public organizations and scientific and research centres that map out the strategy, tactics of production and operation of school buses in North America. Naturally, as in any field, there are innovations, each of which is subject to close scrutiny from designers. The US even has a magazine called School Bus, which writes about news in the industry, safety surveys, market analyses and test drives of buses, a sign of the serious attitude taken towards the subject there. The US National Coalition for School Bus Safety is engaged in the statistics of accidents, updates safety instructions for parents and children and prepares projects to improve school system operations. The US also operates the National School Transportation Association, which unites private contractors, manufacturers and suppliers of school buses, develops effective tools and security resources in this area, trains drivers and gives them licences to operate, supporting school districts in transporting children to educational institutions.

Safe and sound

All this is done to ensure the safety of children who, according to American statisticians, are much more likely to die in an accident on the way to and from school if they travel in an ordinary car. Every year 800 schoolchildren are killed on US roads while 150,000 are injured. However, only 2 per cent of cases involve school buses, while in 74 per cent of cases the child gets into an accident when riding in an ordinary car. These statistical figures graphically demonstrate the effectiveness of public policy on the safety of school transport, which it is time to introduce in Azerbaijan, especially taking into account that in the first half of this year, according to the State Road Police of Baku, 44 road accidents involving school children occurred in the capital alone. As a result, nine schoolchildren were killed and 37 injured. There were 12 more accidents than during the same period last year, 14 more cases of injury and one more death.

Of course, it would be wrong to compare Azerbaijan and the US in terms of school transport. This area is still in its infancy in our country - the service operates only in private schools in Azerbaijan, and not in all of them, while in the United States, it has developed since the early 1920s. And we do not have special buses for this purpose. But we do have one advantage - there is no need to "reinvent the wheel" - we can save a lot of time, money and effort by using long-standing ideas.

For example, the United States has special provisions on respect for school buses and special traffic rules. This means that when a school bus has stopped and is flashing its red light, the driver of a vehicle meeting or overtaking the stopped bus from either direction (front or back) or at an intersection must stop and wait until the bus moves again or the red light is off. Once the red lights of the school bus stop flashing, the other driver should carefully watch whether there are children on the road and not start moving until they all leave the road. In addition, in the US you must give way to any transit motor vehicle which gives an appropriate signal and is driving on the highway.

Standards

There are other common standards too. As a phenomenon, school buses in the United States began to emerge in 1910 - the authorities in 30 American states decided to organize transport for children travelling to the place of study, borrowing carts from local farmers. But in the 1920-30s, the active construction of roads began in rural America, and horses in harness were replaced by "horsepower" under the bonnet. With the advent of internal combustion engines, the first school buses began to appear. Initially, they were not very different from their predecessors: they had a canvas top and benches along the sides, while the entrance and exit were at the back. But as technology developed, buses improved, and by the 1930s, they had acquired the design that is relatively close to today's buses.

The problem of standardization arose at the same time: different manufacturers built buses that differed widely in quality and price, but standardization helped significantly improve the situation. Its design involved engineers from companies such as Blue Bird, Ford, Chevrolet and DuPont. And today, when creating a bus to transport children, the following features must be taken into account: a seat for a child is smaller than one for adults; the height of steps at the entrance, as well as handrails should be smaller. In some cases, a retractable footrest is used. The bus must be equipped with seats for attendants and a luggage compartment for bags.

Security requirements are separate: in a modern school bus, seats must be equipped with seat belts, while the vehicle itself - with light and sound alarms. It is essential that the driver can control boarding and drop-off and that the children cannot be out of sight. To this end, buses are equipped with additional mirrors or cameras. DuPont has developed a yellow colour called National School Bus Glossy Yellow specially for school buses. According to design manufacturers, black holographic "children" labels on a yellow bus will be more visible in any conditions. A yellow bus is highly visible to other road users. Some of the most stringent safety standards for school buses in the US, where, for example, each of them is equipped with sliding stop signals with lights and sometimes even a small barrier in the front, is that children who get off the bus should not cross the street in front of it. The Envire Bus 2000 model of the Blue Bird Company has a navigation system. With its help, the driver receives information about traffic jams, accidents, detours and the weather. In addition, the system tells the central controller about the location of the "crew", breakdowns, radio communication failures and bus attackers. In addition, there is a special radar installation that constantly monitors the distance to the nearest vehicle or other object.

But if a collision occurs, then in addition to regular doors, passengers can evacuate through the emergency back door and four side windows. They are marked with a special reflective film and can be removed from both inside and outside. For disabled children, there is a special Envire Bus 2000 with a lift. 

Think for yourselves

Of course, in Azerbaijan there are no special buses to transport children, even if vehicles are leased by private schools for this purpose. In some private schools, the charge for transporting the child to school and home is included in the price of annual or monthly education. But can we entrust the transportation of children to the Russian Gazel minibus, which, as recognized in Russia, does not meet the minimum standards of passive safety and its use as a means of public transport poses a threat not only to passengers but also to other road users? Meanwhile, according to observations by a correspondent of R+, there are private schools in Baku, in which children are transported by these vehicles.

Asked by our correspondent why there is no "school bus" system in Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Education noted that it was not envisaged originally from the Soviet era. Secondary schools were built taking into account the walking distance from residential areas, and in most cases, parents had a choice of several schools. In this case, it is rarely necessary to take pupils to school. Buses are needed primarily to transport children on excursions and other educational and recreational activities. That's why they are hired only if they are needed. If, however, some institution decides to transport pupils, the school management should probably talk to parents who are unlikely to refuse this service. But they will have to pay for it. It is clear that neither the school nor the Education Ministry have money to maintain and hire buses, not to mention to purchase them, the ministry emphasized.

Of course, it is impossible to compare the present time and Soviet years. Today, you are afraid to let your child walk through the neighbourhood alone. First, there are several times more cars than in Soviet times. But it's not only security on the roads. Parents' attitude towards the street is perceived as sending the child into a danger zone in which you can encounter various types of killers and paedophiles. Of course, we do not assert that such a phenomenon is widespread in our country, but such a possibility exists. So, many parents are forced to accompany their children to school for a very long time. In addition, the school is not always nearby.

The advantage of transporting children is that it reduces the traffic on the roads and helps reduce the number of vehicles in the parking area of schools, which many secondary schools in Baku do not have at all. Often parents are forced to stop the car to drop off their child literally on the roadway, not to mention escorting them to the class, which takes at least 15 minutes. It is not difficult to guess what difficulties this creates for the traffic.

We have looked in detail at the work of the "school bus" system, based on the example of the United States, and can understand that this system cannot be introduced through individual initiatives or by parents who are already loaded with numerous fees for school. It is necessary to consider it at the state level up, including the introduction of a controller service. The time is now. Based on US experience, we can learn from the provision on general respect for school buses and even make changes to the traffic rules. Perhaps, knowledge of how the transportation of school children is organized in the US will help those who will be responsible for the Azerbaijani "school bus" programme in the future. Anyway, this is what we very much hope.