Blue Bird Corporation has announced that their school buses will come with Electronic Stability Control (ESC) on all buses equipped with air brakes, as well as backup camera systems as standard equipment on all new vehicles. Continuing a tradition of being first to market with safety and environmental innovations, Blue Bird introduced ESC to customers in 2015 – a first for the industry at the time. Electronic stability control technology has been a part of passenger vehicles for many years with incredible results in collision mitigation. Using a group of sensors, the ESC system is notified when a potential situation may occur, and activates the brakes in a sequence to reduce the chances of losing control of the bus. In larger medium- and heavy-duty truck applications, ESC serves as a way to also prevent rollover incidents, and works well to prevent incidents on icy, wet, sandy and muddy roads – all conditions that school bus drivers encounter. The system currently works with buses equipped with air brakes, and ESC is supplied by Bendix, an industry leader in brakes and braking systems. While ESC enhances safety, it does not take responsibility away from the driver: rather, the system acts as one more way to give the driver better control in situations where slides and skids are more likely to occur. In addition to Electronic Stability Control, Blue Bird has also added a rear backup camera as a standard feature on all of their school buses going forward. Backup camera systems are considered an essential safety feature on modern-day vehicles. Blue Bird’s backup camera system utilizes a single camera located at the back of the vehicle. This camera shows a 150-degree field of vision image of the rear of the bus to the driver through a 7” LCD color monitor displayed in the rearview mirror. The image shows when the bus is in reverse, and features night vision capability. Blue Bird is also working on developing a dash-mounted monitor, which will be available soon. For all new buses built by Blue Bird in 2019, electronic stability control and backup camera systems will be standard equipment.