www.stnonline.com


STATE


NUMBER OF BUSES


Driver Reported: First Light Tracking Sheet


SCHOOL DAYS W/TRACKING


BASELINE VIOLATIONS


SCHOOL DAYS W/ TRACKING


TEST PERIOD VIOLATIONS


VIOLATION REDUCTION RATE


ADVERTISEMENT Comparison Buses - Traditional Retroreflective Stop Arms TRADITIONAL RETROREFLECTIVE STOP ARM SCHOOL DISTRICT VIOLATION DATA SOURCE BASELINE VIOLATIONS TEST PERIOD


Montgomery Independent School District David Douglas School District Englewood Schools


Maize Unified School District Sherwood School District


Jackson County School District Dublin City Schools


Guilderland Central School District Dekalb County Central United School District Conclusions


Even though the study of the illuminated stop arm was in a convenience sample (accessibility and willingness to participate) of school districts that used different data collection methods, the pattern of results is compelling. Fourteen of the 15 school districts reported notable decreases in stop arm violations over many days of operation. This leaves little doubt that fully illuminating the stop octagon changes the environment around a stopped school bus and likely creates higher com- pliance by motorists. If full illumination of the stop octagon results in motorist responses such as those observed in this pilot test, a meaningful improvement to school bus safety, particularly to fatal crashes, should be the result. Additional hypotheses that are suggested by these results include:


• Full illumination of the octagon produces a sta-


tistically significant reduction in school bus passing violations;


• Full illumination of the stop octagon produces


statistically significant reductions in violations under varying operating conditions such as time of year, ge- ography, or inclement weather;


• By fully illuminating the octagon, First Light’s stop arm is always recognizable as a stop sign and elimi- nates any uncertainty of the action motorists must take.


It is also worth noting that relative to other safety tech- nologies, the cost of outfitting 1-2 stop arms per bus is minimal. The cost is less than 1% of the total cost of a new school bus. For that minimal increase to a new school bus, districts can potentially make an immediate


TX OR CO KS


OR GA OH NY IN


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1


01/02/2023 to 28/02/2023 20 01/02/2023 to 24/03/2023 35 01/02/2023 to 30/03/2023 33 01/02/2023 to 31/03/2023 01/02/2023 to 23/03/2023


32 37


01/02/2023 to 27/03/2023 32 01/02/2023 to 31/03/2023 01/02/2023 to 31/03/2023


01/02/2023 to 24/03/2023 37


35 36


9


32 23 71


03/04/2023 to 28/04/2023 20 03/04/2023 to 25/05/2023 04/04/2023 to 23/05/2023 04/04/2023 to 25/05/2023


82 03/04/2023 to 23/05/2023 15


10/04/2023 to 23/05/2023


98 04/04/2023 to 24/05/2023 183 03/04/2023 to 31/05/2023 25


03/04/2023 to 23/05/2023


35 33 32 37 32 35 36 37


14 45 27 81 92 15


98


142 5


-55.6% -40.6% -17.4% -14.1% -12.2% 0.0% 0.0%


22.4% 80.0%


and measurable reduction in stop arm violations. Also, First Light’s illuminated stop arms are installed and func- tion in the same manner as traditional stop arms.


In summary, this efficacy study strongly suggests that increasing the visibility of the stop octagon by adding full illumination positively impacts the behavior of drivers who intend to comply with the law. Although the tech- nology eliminates any ambiguity that the motorists are approaching a stop sign on a school bus, its effectiveness will almost surely be compromised if motorists do not understand the law or do not intend to comply. Never- theless, with over 43 million stop arm violations occurring every year, and the potential impact fully illuminating the stop arm has on decreasing illegal passings, millions of these infractions can be eliminated annually. This change would almost surely result in saving children’s lives.


School buses carry the most precious cargo every sin- gle day and data-based decisions need to be made, with action-based initiatives to implement change. We, at First Light, hope that this data encourages more states to fol- low in the footsteps of North Carolina and South Carolina who made First Light’s Fully Illuminated Stop Arms their minimum standard for new buses as of 2023.


Acknowledgements


First Light Safety Products would like to thank and ac- knowledge the school districts who participated in this study. This study would not have been possible without their invaluable contributions. We would also like to thank those within the industry that provided us with guidance, insight, and support to gather this critical data.


65


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