Overview:
Starting in the 2024-2025 school year, the buses will have three-point seat belts.
Blue Bird Corporation, the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, is setting a new standard for safety in student transportation. The company announced the safety upgrades, to protect school children, bus drivers, and other road users.
Starting in fall 2024, Blue Bird will equip new school buses with industry-first safety features, including three-point seat belts as standard protection for all student passengers.
Blue Bird, the only U.S.-owned and operated school bus manufacturer, employs approximately 2,000 team members at its Georgia-based facility.
Blue Bird will also safeguard school bus drivers by introducing 4Front, a steering wheel deployed airbag. The company partnered with IMMI, an employee-owned, leading global supplier of advanced safety systems and restraints based in Indiana, to develop these groundbreaking safety enhancements.
Britton Smith, president of Blue Bird Corporation, emphasized the company’s commitment to safety: “For nearly a century, our children’s safety has been our business. We proudly carry millions of school children every year, the most precious cargo in the world. Today we raise the bar even higher for student transportation by announcing the most comprehensive safety upgrades to our school buses in our history.”
The safety upgrades extend beyond seat belts and air bags. Blue Bird is implementing a series of improvements to increase the performance and safety of its school buses on the road.
To enhance visibility for bus drivers and other motorists, the company will adopt high-intensity LED lighting on the outside and inside of the bus, high-resolution front and rear cameras, as well as lighted stop arms, lighted school bus signs, and strobe lights.
Blue Bird is also implementing high-tech systems to improve vehicle safety, including collision mitigation systems. These will be added to the currently-standard electronic stability control (ESC).
Larry Gray, CEO of IMMI, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership: “We are thrilled to partner with iconic school bus manufacturer Blue Bird as their new seating and advanced safety supplier. School buses carry millions of school children every day and literally our nation’s future. We applaud Blue Bird for its bold leadership to make lap-shoulder belts standard safety equipment, while also leading the way to better protect drivers.”
The significance of these safety upgrades becomes clear when considering the scale of school bus transportation in the United States. School buses constitute the country’s largest mass transit transportation system, with approximately 480,000 buses in operation.
Over 25 million children and over 175,000 drivers travel on school buses every weekday. These buses cover nearly 6 billion miles annually, underscoring the critical importance of safety measures in student transportation.
Blue Bird has more than 20,000 propane, natural gas, and electric-powered buses in operation today.