HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – A new school bus warning light system is being tested by 10 school districts in Michigan.
The system can reduce drivers missing the warning and passing-by-buses as they stop. It comes as response to the 2011 deaths of Bruce Privacky 16, and his sister, Antonia, 13, who died after Bruce drove into the back of a Coopersville school bus on the way home from school.
The trial will include West Michigan’s Forest Hills, Zeeland, West Ottawa and Ravenna buses. The system installs on the back of the school bus and is closer to the motorist’s eye level, according to a news release.
When a bus is preparing to stop it flashes a message in amber lights saying CAUTION STOPPING. When a school bus stops and school children are loading and unloading, the lights change color and so does the message. An image of a stop sign with the word STOP and the words DO NOT PASS flash in red letters.
Drivers will evaluate the system for two weeks starting October 19. Zeeland schools will demonstrate the system this Friday at its transportation facility.
Rep. Holly Hughes, R-Montague, sponsored the legislation for the bus alert system and will discuss the pilot program during a news conference in Ravenna which is the Privacky’s hometown. Hughes has been advocate of installing additional lighting on the back of school buses since the December 14, 2011 death of the Privacky children.
– Mary Ellen Murphy
