Parents in general are always concerned while their children are outside either for studies, games or any other things.
While at home or at school, the parents have that sense of feeling that their children are safe. But there is a common notion, which is true that happens in between their school & home: yes their school bus journey.
You may be aware of the recent unfortunate events related to school bus safety on road where the innocent children had to bear the brunt of road rage & careless driving.
These things have aggravated the emotional distress of parents sitting at home or office concerned about the safety of their children.
Uses of Technology
Technology has always been a life saver in these kinds of situations not just in terms of prevention but also to let the parents or authorities know that help is needed.
An in detail analysis is needed in terms of identifying the grey areas in bus timetable and live bus arrivals also to suggest and implement solutions enabled by technology for solving those problems.
There are situations wherein the children are dropped off from a school bus in a totally different location than the one he or she should be dropped in.
It’s heartbreaking every time that a parent hears that their child is not in the designated location.
These errors are mostly inadvertent one from the bus drivers or the caretaker who is supposed to be inside the bus throughout the journey.
The staffs assigned to each bus would not be the same one every day. They would probably be on a rotation basis.
A practical solution for this problem would be to enable the caretaker inside the bus with a low cost tablet with an app that has a bus timetable and routes with the list of students to be dropped at stipulated destinations. This could be a fool proof solution.
Most of the school buses do not have a system to tackle emergency medical situations. There are children who always suffer from long time travelling health issues.
An emergency infrastructure has to be deployed inside the bus. If there is an acute medical situation, the bus driver or the caretaker inside should be able to report it immediately to a clinic that is close by.
A GPS module inside the school bus along with a distress button would enable the caretaker to send a signal to the close by clinic wherein they can track the live bus arrivals.
The parents are always in a state of oblivion about where their children are after the school bus journey begins from school to home. Imagine the situation if the journey takes close to or more than an hour. It’s bad.
Location based bus tracker solutions are always the life savers here. Consider a proposition wherein the parent is enabled with a mobile application that gives the exact location of the school bus in which their child is.
With the emergence of smartphones, most of the parents would be having a phone wherein you can install an application. The parents would never hesitate to have an app in their phone if it’s concerned with the well being of their children.
Live bus arrivals can be tracked easily with the GPS system installed in the bus. The parents only need to get to the stop when the bus is close by, no need to rush or no need to wait for such a long time in anticipation.
Bus tracker solutions are very much common in countries in the west. Those adoption rates are slowly picking up in India as well.
Advantages of GPS Tracking
The one major advantage of GPS tracking system is that it can help save children from being abducted.
There are cases of missing children are increasing, leveraging tracking technology to save and keep children safe is beneficial for both school officials and parents.
A decent GPS tracking device can confirm live bus arrivals and check whether a child had been on an assigned bus based on the bus timetable and had they been out of the bus or not.
With the help of the bus tracker, a parent is aware of the fact that a child is inside their assigned bus and heading to the right location provides a safe thinking to parents.
School bus safety concerns are aplenty to handle and it becomes worrisome for the parents. They do have the thought whether their children are in safe hands or not.
It’s always going to be a headache for the school management to ensure the duty to the right people for transportation.
The driver has to be assigned with full charge or responsibility while on duty and it has to be ensured that his instructions are to be followed at all times. It's always advisable not to make noise inside the bus, by that way could distract the driver.
The children have to be educated or made aware to not to loiter inside the moving bus or to keep their arms and head outside the bus while in motion. Misconduct inside the bus will result in damage of the bus or physical abuse to the people inside.
Conclusion
A lot of things are to be concerned about, but a systematic risk mitigation approach could lead to a much better environment in terms of travel and learning.
The people involved here including the bus caretakers, drivers, management, parents and the children are equally involved in the safety and professionalism in taking things forward in a smooth way.