If You See a Bus in New York With This Signal Call 911 Right Away

There's a little-known safety feature that bus drivers can activate in an emergency that the public needs to know about.

Every once in a while you stumble across some important information while scrolling through social media. This week, between videos of people exploding balloons filled with shaving cream and footage of rude customers getting kicked out of restaurants I found some information that is very useful and could save a life.

Don't Ignore This Signal From a Public Bus

Instagram user Simon Soloway recently posted a video of a public bus flashing a message that says "Emergency" and "911 Call Police". Confused, Soloway asked if he was supposed to call 911 or if this was some sort of public service about calling 911 if you experience an emergency.

Personally, I wasn't sure what I would do if I saw something like this so I decided to do a little more research. Surprisingly, I found out that this is an actual emergency and bystanders are supposed to call 911 to report it.

According to LYT, a cloud software company that provides technology for public transit, the message is part of a SAS or Silent Alarm System.

If a bus driver is confronted by an armed customer, unruly passenger or other emergency where they can't verbally contact 911, they're trained to activate the SAS. Depending on the technology, the alarm will either automatically call police from the bus or simply flash a signal outside the bus to get the attention of first responders.

When you see a bus with a message like this, you can be sure that there is someone on the bus who needs emergency assistance and should immediately call 911 to report it.

I'm glad I saw this video because I never knew that this was a thing. Now, if I ever encounter a silent alarm I'll know exactly what to do.