At BusPatrol, our mission is to make roads safer, one community at a time. In Florida alone, more than 14,000 school buses transport students over 200 million miles each year. Every route presents an opportunity to reduce dangerous driving behaviors and raise awareness about the risks of illegally passing a stopped school bus.
Through our partnerships in Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties, we have launched safety programs focused on prevention, education, and enforcement. Today, almost 2,000 school buses across Florida are equipped with cameras to catch drivers illegally passing stopped buses. These stop-arm cameras have already recorded thousands of violations, highlighting the urgent need for increased driver awareness and community engagement to ensure safer roads.
Our programs are designed not just to address immediate violations, but to create lasting impact by changing driving behaviors over time. As our chief growth officer Steve Randazzo highlighted, “We actually have the data to prove that over 90% of folks who get one violation in the mail do not break the law again. That’s tremendously low recidivism.”
We believe that education is fundamental to changing behaviors, which is why we have been actively engaging in Florida over the past few months to raise awareness among students, parents, and residents. Here’s what we’ve been up to:
Raising awareness during back-to-school season
To kick off the back-to-school season this year, we launched awareness initiatives across the state to highlight the importance of safe driving around school buses. To get the word out in Miami-Dade County, we executed a three-phase PSA campaign:
- Spring 2024: Miami-Dade School Bus Safety program announcement
- Summer 2024: Back-to-school program reminder
- Fall 2024: National School Bus Safety Week program reminder and student education
Additionally, educational videos in English, Spanish, and Creole were distributed across social media and through programmatic channels, specifically targeting high-violation areas.
We also supported both Hillsborough and Miami-Dade school districts with tailored communication toolkits, which included parent letters, citizen texts, robocalls, flyers, fact sheets, a cross-platform social media campaign, and more. When communities partner with BusPatrol, they can rely on seamless program management that raises awareness and supports safety efforts year-round.
Bringing safety to the classroom for School Bus Safety Week
Each year during the third full week of October, National School Bus Safety Week raises awareness about school bus safety and emphasizes the importance of keeping students safe during their commutes. This year, we celebrated by hosting bus safety workshops in classrooms across Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties.
During these sessions, students learned practical safety tips, including looking both ways before crossing, avoiding the bus’s danger zone, and identifying potential hazards. They also engaged with activity books and watched a short film that reinforced key school bus safety rules.
A year-round commitment to safety
Special initiatives like back-to-school season and School Bus Safety Week help raise awareness, but our commitment to safer roads extends year-round. Even early in the school year, we are proud to see our programs already making Florida communities safer.
“The number of citations we have seen is stunning,” said Donny Wolfe, our vice president of government relations. Wolfe, a father himself, encourages others to drive safely and stay vigilant on the road. “I hope this continues to curb reckless driver behavior.”
