COLUMBUS – The Ohio State Highway Patrol and the departments of Transportation and Education are leading an effort to make school buses more visible and safer for the 1.6 million kids who ride them.
The agencies partnered with private businesses to create new highly reflective “STOP” decals for the rear of each of the state’s nearly 20,000 school buses to make them more visible in both daylight and at nighttime.
The decals are being printed by ODOT’s Sign Shop and will be provided to the schools at no cost.
State officials say there have been 6,519 school bus-related crashes since 2017, 1,421 of them involving a driver following too close to a bus and 712 involving a driver failing to yield.
The idea was brought about by troopers in the Patrol’s Licensing and Commercial Standard Unit who saw a need for increased visibility and worked with ODOT, ODE, manufacturers, and various safety committees to work out the details.
Nine school districts, including Columbus, Dublin and Marysville, tried out the decals on their buses as part of a pilot program and reported that they were more effective than the standard, non-reflective decal currently displayed on the rear of school buses. The districts also reported the reflective “STOP” decal would improve school bus safety in dusk/dawn lighting conditions and in rain.
During their research, Ohio troopers found no other state offering such a safety mechanism.