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In September 2000 the Environment Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly held a public enquiry into the safety of home to school transport. The Committee's report, which was published in September 2001 included recommendations that a specification for a new system of signs and lights should be developed and that this system should be fitted and used on all school buses. Following an assessment of this and the other key recommendations it was announced in September 2006 that new measures would be introduced which would improve the safety of school bus transport, including the provision of new signs and lights on school buses.

Since then a technical specification for the new system of signs and lights has been developed by DOE in partnership with the Department for Regional Development (DRD), the Department of Education (DE), the Education and Library Boards (ELBs), private operators and external experts in lights and bus manufacture, and is available below.

School Bus Signs and Lights Technical Specification (135 KB)

Preliminary testing of the signs and lights system was carried out to assess the impact of the the new system and the results are available below.

School Bus Signs and Lights Speed Monitoring Test (2MB)