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NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS UP TO DEC. 2003Siloam Springs To Install School Bus Cameras After Crash
One Student Killed, 20 Injured, In May Accident SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. -- The city of Siloam Springs will spend $36,000 to install cameras on school buses in the wake of a deadly bus accident that killed a 14-year-old student, 40/29 reported Tuesday. Adopting a policy enacted by other school districts, the city has decided to install video cameras on its 23 school buses to monitor student behavior after a bus crash killed a student and injured 20 others in May. The crash was blamed, in part, on disruptive student behavior, which distracted the bus driver. "It gives us another set of eyes to see what's going on so we can follow up on it the next day," said Kent Raymick of Siloam Springs Schools. The district originally planned to install cameras only on new buses, but decided to expand the camera program in May, when a student died when a bus overturned. The cameras will be installed in Siloam Springs school buses by fall, administrators said. "I don't think anything would have changed what happened on that day, but I think what the cameras will do is, we hope, cut down on the discipline that seems to be an ongoing problem on the buses," Raymick said. Merlin Yeager's company has been in the business of installing cameras aboard school buses for 20 years. "This will be the future," he predicted to 40/29. In the past several years, the cameras have become more popular, Yeager said. Following May's crash, some parents had asked
that chaperones be required to ride on buses to keep students in line, but
the district said that the option was too expensive. click here for aftermath of crash
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