These Wake students came up with a way to make bus stops safer — and won a national prize
A group of Wake County middle school students want to make catching the school bus safer, with a flashing sign at bus stops that would let riders and motorists know when the bus is about to stop.
The team of sixth-grade students at Holly Grove Middle School in Holly Springs is working with technology experts to develop a sign that would automatically flash when a school bus comes within 300 feet of the stop. The bus safety idea has won the students national recognition, including the prize for the top idea for North Carolina in the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow Contest.
“It would decrease the amount of incidents of stop-arm violations and it would increase the safety of children on buses and waiting for their stops,” said Deija Reed, 12, a sixth-grade student at Holly Grove.
The idea has gained support among Wake County school transportation officials, according to Debbie Schelin, a science teacher at Holly Grove who is working with the students. If a working prototype is developed, Schelin says that the district may place the signs at stops where there are a lot of violations from motorists illegally passing stopped school buses.
Statewide, more than 3,000 motorists illegally pass stopped school buses each day.
The Samsung contest challenges students to solve real-world problems in their local communities by using skills in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. School bus safety jumped to the top of the list for Holly Grove students, who’ve seen traffic skyrocket as Holly Springs has rapidly grown.
“We see multiple accidents every year about buses or someone crossing the road and then a car hits them that isn’t paying attention at a bus stop,” said James Davis, 11, a sixth-grade student at Holly Grove. “We just thought of bus safety, and we were trying to prevent ways of children getting hit.”
Their initial idea was to develop a solar-powered camera that would be placed on school bus stop-arms to record people who are illegally passing the buses. But Schelin said that they decided to shift the idea because a handful of Wake school buses already have stop-arm cameras.
Schelin said the goal is to develop a solar-powered bus stop sign that would be programmed to flash when it detects the GPS signal from the school bus that’s supposed to stop there. The signs would also automatically trigger the flashing lights on the bus.
“It’s one of those things that you’re sure is already out there but it’s not,” said Evan Kruger, 11, a sixth-grade student at Holly Grove.
The sign would alert students waiting at the stop who might be distracted as they do things such as listen to music on their headphones. It would help motorists too, Schelin said, because many Holly Grove parents said in a survey they didn’t know when the bus was about to stop because the stop-arm doesn’t deploy until the bus is completely stopped.
Students also say the new flashing signs would help substitute bus drivers who aren’t sure of the location of each stop.
The Holly Grove students are among the 50 national winners, one from each state, in the Samsung contest. They’ve won $20,000 worth of technology for their school.
The students are hoping to be among the 10 national finalists chosen to pitch their project to a panel of judges. Seven of the national finalists will get $50,000 in technology, with the other three begin named national grand prize winners and receiving $100,000 in classroom technology and supplies.
The general public will elect one Community Choice winner from the pool of national finalists who will be eligible to win an additional $10,000 in Samsung technology.
The Holly Grove students will be competing against other state winners who also have compelling projects dealing with topics such as mental health, school shootings, vaping, bullying, homelessness and veteran care.
“We all got energetic and really happy that we won for the state,” Davis said. “But then we were all still thinking about what we had next to go up against with the other states.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2019 at 3:23 PM.
