Design and Validation of a School Bus Passing Detection System Based on Solid-State LiDAR

The recent increase in school bus passing accidents leading to injuries to and deaths of children has sparked nationwide concern; hence, the development of a comprehensive solution to minimize the probabilities of such accidents is essential. Ignoring active stop signs and crossing arms on school buses that are boarding and deboarding children at stops is a serious traffic violation, but it is difficult to prosecute drivers who are guilty of these offenses due to the lack of surveillance and monitoring systems that can provide critical violation information to law enforcement agencies. This study aims to address the issue of illegal passing of school buses prevailing in small towns and cities where lack of sufficient oversight exists. A detection system incorporating a solid-state LiDAR unit and a dashcam, both of which are controlled by a Raspberry Pi computer, was designed. The primary function of the system is to capture an image of the license plate of the violating vehicle and make that data available to law enforcement agencies, enabling those agencies to take appropriate enforcement action, which in turn will serve as a deterrent to mitigate future accidents. Several state legislative bodies have passed related bills and have urged researchers to find solutions to address the issue. This detection system achieves two keys goals: reducing overall cost of system implementation and reducing video review time. It is a potential component for a comprehensive solution to the school bus passing problem.