SOUCC) oT The Technology On The Bus Goes “Beep, Beep, Beep” (NAPSA)—Thechildren’s song “The Wheels on the Bus” cites a number of features of a school bus but it doesn’t even scratch the surface about what today’s busesoffer. For example, North America’s largest bus manufacturer has developed something it calls Leave No Student Behind” to help ensure students are not left on the bus. “Protecting the passenger is our No. 1 priority,” says Mike Cancelliere, vice president and general manager of IC Corporation. “We work with hundreds of bus drivers, fleet supervisors, school administrators and mechanics to develop school buses that provide commonsense approachesto today’s issues.” Leave No Student Behind One of the biggest transportation issues that face many school districts is the concern that a child will be left behind on a bus. With Leave No Student Behind, when the bus ignition is turned off, an audible signal comes from the back of the bus. The driver must walk to the back of the bus to manually turn off the signal and, in doing so, ean check all of the seats to make sure a child hasnotfallen asleep or is hiding on the bus. New school bus technology helps protect students. “Every time you see a story about a child being left on a bus, it’s one story too many,” says Cancelliere. “It made sense for us to develop a system that helps drivers make sureall of their passengers are accounted for when the bus finishes its run.” Passenger protection continues as the uppermost concern when designing student transportation. Telematics On the horizon is new technology that can track bus routes remotely from a computer. International Telematics uses a global positioning satellite (GPS) not only to track a bus’s location but also to monitor its speed, engine performance and other performance measures through the bus’s electronic system. Consequently, a bus fleet manager or school principal could find the exact location and operating condition of a bus just by accessing a password-protected site on the Internet. This can help pinpoint bus breakdowns, accidents and other mishaps whenit’s imperative to identify the exact location of a bus. Also, with telematics, an alert can be sent immediately to appropriate school administrators when a bus strays from a predetermined zone. “Geo-fencing,” as it is called, helps keep buses on the right course—an important feature when a driver gets lost on a field trip or, in a worst-case scenario, a busis hijacked. “These features are just a few of the newest improvements on today’s school buses that help look after some of the most precious cargo on the roads today—students,” says Cancelliere. Moreinformation about the latest in bus features is available at www.ic-corp.com.
