Video eyed for all school buses

[Lori Price CLG]

Video eyed for all school buses

BRISTOL (CT) Students in Bristol, beware: ...Soon, you’ll be on camera.

The school board has earmarked funds in its transportation budget for the next school year that will increase the number of video cameras on buses from two to 90.

Currently, the buses, owned by First Student, house dummy cameras on all of the district’s buses, with two actual cameras rotating throughout the buses, so students never know when they are being videotaped.

<snip>


Lori R. Price
Citizens For Legitimate Government

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. This is a great idea

We have cameras on buses where I teach and they have really reduced the problems on the bus. How in the world can a bus driver drive while kids are going wild? Only one kid can cause lots of problems. We had a kid throw his backpack and hit the driver in the back of the head. Whatever it takes to keep the kids safe, I say bring it on.

[kath]

2. They won't put frikkin' SEATBELTS on school buses , fer Gawd's sake,

but they plan on spending $$$$ for cameras?!?!
Sheesh.

[renegade000]

3. i think seltbelts on schoolbuses are rather ineffectual

but i've actually wondered about this myself...i dunno, its odd i agree

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. National Transportation Highway Safety Administration & seatbelts

From NTHSA:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is responsible for establishing Federal motor vehicle safety standards to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries from motor vehicle crashes, including those involving school buses. We also work with the states on school bus safety and occupant protection programs. School bus safety is one of our highest priorities.

<snip>
School bus crash data show that a Federal requirement for belts on buses would provide little, if any, added protection in a crash. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) have come to the same conclusion. NTSB concluded in a 1987 study of school bus crashes that most fatalities and injuries were due to occupant seating positions being in direct line with the crash forces. NTSB stated that seat belts would not have prevented most of the serious injuries and fatalities occurring in school bus crashes.

In 1989, NAS completed a study of ways to improve school bus safety and concluded that the overall potential benefits of requiring seat belts on large school buses are insufficient to justify a Federal requirement for mandatory installation. NAS also stated that the funds used to purchase and maintain seat belts might better be spent on other school bus safety programs and devices that could save more lives and reduce more injuries.

Rather than requiring seat belts, NHTSA decided that the best way to provide crash protection to passengers is through a concept called "compartmentalization." This requires that the interior of large buses provide occupant protection so that children are protected without the need to buckle-up. Occupant crash protection is provided by a protective envelope consisting of strong, closely-spaced seats that have energy-absorbing seat backs. The effectiveness of compartmentalization has been confirmed in the NTSB and NAS studies.

Small school buses, those with a gross vehicle weight rating under 10,000 pounds, must be equipped with lap or lap/shoulder belts at all designated seating positions. Since their sizes and weights are closer to those of passenger cars and trucks, the agency believes seat belts in those vehicles are necessary to provide occupant protection.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/buses/pub/seatbelt.hmp.html

And this CBS report:
School Buses With Seatbelts?
NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2003
(CBS) Riding that yellow bus is the safest way to get to school.

Far more kids are injured walking or riding in a car to school than they are taking the bus. But the question is: Would they be even safer if they buckled up?

CBS News Correspondent Tracy Smith looked into that question for her Study Hall report.

<snip>
The National Transportation Highway Safety Administration did a series of crash tests last October to see how they could make school buses safer than they are now. At the lab, they're testing belts that only go across kids' laps. In a crash, their heads still smack the seat in front of them. But when they use lap-shoulder belts, like the one Nicholas Torrisi uses, the kids basically stay in place.

The study found belts would make a small difference, reducing the number of kids killed each year in school bus crashes from eight to seven. Still Cliff Berchtold, director of transportation for the Monroe-Woodbury school district, thinks saving even one life makes them worth it.

<snip>
And then, there's the frightening rollover school bus crash last month in Circleville, Ohio. Gauthier says that if lap-shoulder belts had been installed, they might have hurt more than helped.

Gauthier says, “No kids were injured - couple of bruises, couple of bumps. If you had lap shoulder belts in that bus, in that crash, the kids that were thrown to one side to the other would be dangling six feet in the air because a bus is eight foot wide.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/04/earlyshow/contributors/tracysmith/main581863.shtml

[Lori Price CLG]

7. That's a great idea, spending the $ on seat belts instead of cameras.

The problem is, the Bush dictatorship is trying to get children accustomed to endless surveillance and privacy invasions. Seat belts save lives, a factor unimportant to the Bush regime.

:)-Lori Price

[Bonobo]

5. Jeez, I thought you meant "video tape machines". Better idea IMHO.

[no_arbusto]

6. We had them when I was in high school

My school district put cameras on the buses sometime in the early 90's. We had a similar setup where the cameras were rotated. Everyone was always guessing whether or not our bus was the one with an actual camera onboard. It was difficult to tell since the housing was black with a small tinted square in the front where the camera lens would be. It was very similar to an ATM machine.

I remember one time when my friend was called to the office as a suspect in a paper fight that had occurred on the bus ride home before Christmas break. He denied it until the principal played the video from the bus in which my friend practically looked directly towards the camera (probably looking to see if the bus driver was paying attention in the mirror) before throwing a large wad of paper at another kid in the back of the bus. He confessed and got one week of in school suspension.

At the time I really didn't think about privacy matters with regards to the cameras. Even now I question whether or not they were a bad thing. A lot of nasty shit happens on those buses.

[AlFrankenFan]

8. A couple buses I've ridden in VA and CO

had cameras in 'em. Kinda creepy.