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.

Geographic Information Systems in Schools

Friday was another cold day.  It was so cold I saw penguins migrating south (Yes, I know penguins live in the Antarctic!).  We had another two-hour delay. 

The only real issue we had today was that the base radio at one of our elementary schools went out.  Apparently, ice on the antenna wire pulled it off of the antenna.  They were still able to communicate using their handheld radios, so it wasn't a full-blown emergency.

Communications are very important, especially in school transportation.  We are constantly communicating with schools about students, estimated times of arrival for school buses, and other details.  Kids going to and from school create a critical transition period that can be made much worse without communications.

I spent over an hour in the morning online with a representative of VersaTrans, our bus routing program.  She was showing us VersaTrans' capabilities for real-time GPS tracking, which included real-time tracking of school bus telemetry like speed, engine function, and maintenance schedules.

This brings up the concept of the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in schools.  I am currently taking a course in Mapping and Analysis for Emergency Management for a Master's Certificate in Homeland Security.  This course uses software called ArcMaps that takes various data and displays it on a map.

This technology is used all the tie, from weather maps to GPS systems.  All use coordinate data to project locations in various ways. I will be doing a final project incorporating various data into a risk assessment process using ArcGIS that will graphically display the various threats schools in Hancock County.  Using that information, these schools can then plan accordingly, making them safer for our students.

I will be doing this project in cooperation with the Hancock County Emergency Management Agency and its Director, Misty Moore.  She gave me the name of the Hancock County GIS Coordinator, and I will hopefully collaborate with him to get the pertinent data.  It is possible that this approach can be used as a model for other districts in Indiana, and even other states.