Coach USA’s VP of Safety on improving pedestrian safety with AI

Transportation is changing fast—denser traffic, more pedestrians and cyclists, and growing expectations on operators—so safety leaders have to evolve just as quickly. New technology, especially AI, is giving us visibility and insights we never had before. But technology alone isn’t the answer. You need the right people, the right process, and the right mindset to make a real impact. At Coach USA, we’ve spent the last several years learning how to bring together all of those components in a way that truly supports our operators and protects the communities we serve.

Here are a few lessons we learned as we modernized our safety program and used tools like Samsara AI Multicam to gain visibility into risks we couldn’t see before.

Create a culture of continuous improvement

If there’s one thing I’d encourage safety leaders to do, it’s this: Don’t treat training as a one‑and‑done event. Your operators should get the fundamentals early, but they also need ongoing support and coaching throughout their careers.

At Coach USA, we start by hiring the right people. Then we train operators in stages (classroom, skills course, and on‑road) with certified instructors who can assess how well those fundamentals translate to real life. But the real magic happens after they’re out on their own. Continual touchpoints and real data from tools like Samsara help us catch small habits before they become big issues.

If you want a safer operation, build a system that helps your people keep getting better, not just pass a test on day one.

Buy‑in starts with education, not enforcement

Any time you introduce new technology, expect questions and address them head‑on. Don’t roll out cameras or AI tools and hope people figure it out. Explain exactly what the technology does, what it doesn’t do, and why you’re using it.

When our operators realized cameras could exonerate them and protect them, the resistance faded fast. By the time we introduced AI Multicam, they understood the value well enough that it felt like a natural next step, rather than a surveillance tool.

Lead with transparency and education, and your team will see technology as something that supports them, not something that watches them.

Use technology to shift from reactive to proactive 

The most dangerous incidents in our industry often involve pedestrians or cyclists. And when it comes to the most at-risk population who share our roads, addressing safety issues after the fact isn't good enough.

Use technology to help you identify risks before they turn into incidents. Tools like AI Multicam give us visibility we simply didn’t have before. It shows us blind spots, highlights patterns, and helps us redesign training around real risk, not assumptions.

If you truly want to protect both your operators and the communities you serve, move your safety program from “after the fact” to “prevention first.”

Lean into AI to fill the gaps you don’t even know you have

Every leader knows what gets reported. But what about the things that don’t get reported? Near misses with pedestrians. Cyclists who come too close on a turn. Incidents operators didn’t even realize were close calls.

AI has helped us surface the things we simply weren’t seeing. It saves our team hours of combing through video, but more importantly, it gives us a 360-degree understanding of our risk environment.

Don’t wait for incident reports to tell you where you have problems. Use AI to uncover what’s happening on the road in real time. You can’t fix what you don’t know about.

Use gamification to build accountability, not competition

Recognition is one of the most underrated safety tools out there. If you want operators to take ownership of their performance, give them a simple, transparent way to see how they’re doing and celebrate the wins.

We use Samsara Safety Scores to do exactly that. Operators check their scores, track their progress, and even ask us to review incidents to make sure their score reflects what really happened. That level of engagement didn’t happen by accident; it came from turning safety metrics into something personal and meaningful.

When people are proud of their performance, accountability becomes self‑driven.

Long‑term success starts with choosing a partner, not a product

If I could give one piece of advice to a leader evaluating safety technology, it’s this: Don’t just look at the hardware—look at the partnership. Look for a company that listens, adapts, and supports you long after the install.

Running a pilot is the best way to understand this. Every operation has its own challenges and conditions, and you need a partner who’s willing to meet you where you are. For us, Samsara proved early on that they were invested in our long‑term success—not just the sale.

Choose a partner who helps you grow, not just a product that checks a box.

Interested in learning more about Samsara’s AI Multicam? Listen to Jason and Hannah Maslar, Senior Customer Marketing Manager at Samsara, talk about the technology on Operate Smarter, a Samsara podcast. 

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