School Buses and Black Ice

Black Ice

Temperatures were up on Wednesday, and by 'up' I mean into the low double digits.  Overnight the winds blew snow over many of the country roads, forming black ice.  One of these patches of black ice caught one of our buses.

The American Meteorological Society defines black ice as "a thin sheet of ice, relatively dark in appearance, [that] may form when light rain or drizzle falls on a road surface that is at a temperature below 0 °C." Black ice is very thin, so it is highly transparent which makes it difficult to see.

Accident Remediation

The school bus in question was being driven by a substitute driver, and fortunately there were no children on the bus.  The driver was traveling north, well under the speed limit, hit the patch of black ice, and ended up face first in a ditch, canted at a nearly 45 degree angle.



Photo courtesy of Dan Bullard

Our buses have Angel Trax cameras.  These cameras also record bus telemetry, including speed, direction, and shows when the brakes are applied, stop arms are deployed, etc. That means that the camera system serves as a "black box" of sorts, which can provide data on the incident.

After the initial response, which in this simple case involved calling 911, calling the elementary school and fielding a few phone calls from parents because the bus was late, I began the process of accident remediation.  I contacted my boss, Assistant Superintendent Bob Yoder, and let him know what happened.  I then began a written report based on the information I already had.

When the bus returned, I pulled the hard drive from the camera, and sat down to watch video.  Each bus has four cameras.  One in the front, looking down the aisle, one in the middle, looking toward the back, and one in the back, looking down into the last two rows of seats.  There is a camera above the door which is only active when the door is opened.  When the door is shut it activates the GPS system.

All of the camera views showed the driver did nothing to initiate the incident.  In fact, the driver did not apply the brakes during the slide, the usual response when someone who is driving and starts to slide.  She kept her composure and radioed.  All in all, this incident reaffirmed that I have high-quality people who are driving our kids to school.