CHARLESTON, W.Va — The supervisor of safety and training for Kanawha County Schools says the school system is exploring ways to protect students in the event of an accident, but there is not a definitive direction.
Jimmy Lacy said the biggest issues regarding safety centers around getting students off the bus in the event of an accident.
“The concerns we have is how quickly a bus goes up in flames and can we get students out — especially our elementary school students, our younger that may not be able to click that latch to unhook themselves — there’s concerns about getting them off the bus quick enough,” he said. “There’s concerns of who’s going to make sure that they’re in their seatbelts wearing them properly.”
Lacy said fire suppression systems have been added to buses that when activated would be set off after sensing heat. He added these would be in spots where fires are prominent, like wheel wells.
“Some of them are dry powder, some of them are water-based that extinguish the fire and cools it down,” he said. “Kanawha County has added those fire-suppression systems to all of our special needs buses.”
On the school’s new 90-passenger buses, the devices are near the engines, which are in the rear of the vehicle.