Radar Gun Keeps Bus Speed in Check
Transportation
officials at the district are using their own radar gun to ensure that school
bus drivers are staying within speed limits.
Transportation
Supervisor Gary Peatick and Safety Coordinator Betty Lewis use the tool to
occasionally spot-check buses on their routes and to follow up on speeding
complaints from motorists and community residents. The district runs 16 of its own buses and
contracts about 120.
Driving
their own vehicles, Peatick and Lewis park along bus routes, especially in
spots where they know speeding has been a problem – to perform the monitoring
process.
Peatick
said that idea stemmed from a conversation with a local law enforcement
official about three years ago. When
Peatick inquired about whether officers might be available to do speed checks
of his buses, the official suggested a more efficient option: he could buy his own radar gun.
And so
for $500, Peatick invested in a refurbished model, manufactured by MPH Industries,
which had been used by police. The unit
came with a 35-mph tuning fork for calibration.
Peatick,
who has been with the district for eight years, says the benefits of using the
radar gun are clear.
“It
takes the guesswork out of following up on speeding issues,” he says. “It’s the accuracy of it as a tool that
helps, because drivers will always have opinions about how fast they were going.”
But the
radar gun has been used on more than one occasion to show that the bus drivers
weren’t speeding.
“Much
like with video cameras, it’s not just a tool to prove drivers wrong.” Peatick says.
“It works both ways.”
Peatick
says that because of the size and loudness of school buses, it’s easy for
people to perceive that the big, yellow vehicles are going faster than they
really are.
Article reprinted from School Bus Fleet Magazine, July 2005
With permission from Thomas McMahon, Managing Editor