School buses in Osceola County and throughout Central Florida could soon feature special child-detecting technology aimed at saving kids’ lives.
The special radar technology designed by Korean company Smart Radar System scans the front, sides and undercarriage of the bus for children.
It also helps to scan inside the bus in case a child is left behind. If a child is present, an alarm goes off and lights flash alerting the driver.
Randy Wheeler, Assistant Director of Transportation in the district said the tech was designed, after a 9-year-old was killed crawling under a bus in Orlando in January.
“And I always tell people the underside is the ultimate blind spot for the driver. So I think this is something that has a potential for all school bus operators,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said he hopes buses throughout Central Florida can be updated with the technology soon.
“So this system is a possible aide to the driver to be maybe a virtual assistant to help them understand what’s going on around the bus,” Wheeler said.
The technology could be approved as early as next fall by the Florida Department of Education. Smart Radar System says it would take as little as two hours for an experienced technician to update current buses with the radars.
Marketing General Manager Ho-Joung Kim says the company's technology is already deployed in the capitol city of Seoul, in South Korea, where radars in public restrooms and on public transportation can detect if someone is having a medical emergency.
He says the key is that the technology protects the person's privacy, while quickly calling for help.
In Central Florida, nine-year-old Elyas Marshall-Rodriguez was killed when he crawled under an Orange County bus in January. Then in April, a 15-year-old student died on an Orange County bus after experiencing a medical emergency.
Watch the new technology being tested out in Korea:
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