School bus alarms

[chaoticidealism]

In the news:
California bill targets school bus deaths
SB1072 would require school buses to have child safety alarms. The alarm sounds when the engine is turned off and requires the bus driver to walk to the back of the bus to turn it off.

Paul Lee was a 19 year old autistic student who died of heatstroke when he was left alone in a school bus on

Comments

Alarms & Unintended Consequences

[anonymous]

Noise as an alert is always a bad idea... designers should explore other methods. When my daughter was in Early Intervantion, shw would have a total meltdown every time the school bus showed up - after harrowing rule-outs of things like abuse, we finally realized when the bus was in park the back-up alarm was triggered - and it sounded very much like the equipment in the hospital Intensive Care Unit - where she had some truly horrific experiences.

[bigmark243]

... happy birthday...!

[anonymous]

Maybe there should be a system that forces the driver to go to the back of the bus following a trip. Maybe to turn off a camera or visual alarm that only the driver can see in the cab area. Just something that forces the driver to go to the back of the bus. I know some public buses won't run if the door is open. Maybe a central camera monitoring station. When I was in Pre-k the bus driver had an attendance sheet and would check off the names of who rode the bus in the morning and afternoon. We had assigned seats and the driver always did a walk though