School Bus Fleet, October 2017

connects to your existing GPS system for real time insight can be installed in 20 minutes EP1plus systems still only 9995 5 year warranty PEOPLE ROBERT SUMWALT III was sworn in as chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board NTSB on Aug 10 Sumwalts nomination for a two year term by President DONALD TRUMP was confirmed by the Senate on Aug 3 CHRISTOPHER HARTs term as NTSB chairman ended on March 15 He remains at the investigative agency as a board member Sumwalt has been serving as the agencys acting chairman since March 31 He has been an NTSB member since August 2006 when he was appointed by President GEORGE W BUSH and designated as vice chairman for a two year term I am humbled and honored to have the privilege of guiding the dedicated men and women of the NTSB as we take on the challenges of transportation safety in the 21st century Sumwalt said Transportation technologies continue to advance and the NTSB must continue to increase the breadth and depth of our knowledge and understanding of transportation innovations such as autonomous vehicles intelligent infrastructure commercial space transportation hyper speed rail solar powered planes and new recording technologies That knowledge enables us to craft safety recommendations that leverage technology to prevent accidents and save lives Before joining the NTSB Sumwalt was a pilot for 32 years including 24 years with Piedmont Airlines and US Airways accumulating more than 14000 flight hours During his tenure at US Airways he worked on special assignment to the flight safety department and served on the airlines flight operational quality assurance monitoring team Sumwalt chaired the Air Line Pilots Associations Human Factors and Training Group and co founded the associations critical incident response program He also spent eight years as a consultant to NASAs Aviation Safety Reporting System and has written extensively on aviation safety matters TIFFANY BOYKIN has been named executive director of the National School Transportation Association NSTA The appointment follows the recent departure of RONNA WEBER see August issue pg 38 Boykin who started Boykin with NSTA on Aug 1 has more than 10 years of experience in operational management revenue generation program development and staff leadership of nonprofit organizations Most recently she served as the operational lead on several healthcare clients of an association management company in the Washington D C area Also joining the NSTA team is LESTER SOKOLOWSKI who will serve as regulatory relations director Sokolowski a licensed attorney has more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership specializing in the school bus coach transit and commercial vehicle transportation industries He has also served on school bus industry advisory committees Another change for NSTA is the location of its headquarters The associations office which was previously in Alexandria Virginia is now in Lansdale Pennsylvania SONNY GORDON has been appointed Midwestern regional sales manager for United States Seating Co USSC Gordon joins the company with 20 years of experience in the industry He served most recently as regional sales manager Gordon for MobileView at United Technologies Corp and as national sales director for American Seating Co Prior to his career in sales Gordon played professional football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and in the Canadian Football League In addition to supplying seating USSC Group is the parent company of Fogmaker North America which provides fire suppression systems for school buses and other vehicles Sokolowski 48 SCHOOL BUS FLEET OCTOBER 2017 WWW SCHOOLBUSFLEET COM Photo courtesy NTSB Sumwalt left