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SCHOOL BUS INFORMATION CENTER
School Bus Facts Information for Reporters Covering School Bus Stories (888) 367-7242 This fact sheet is intended to help you if there is a crash or other school bus issue in your community. All information can be used without restriction and attributed to The School Bus Information Center, unless otherwise noted. When reporting about school bus incidents, please consider the circumstances carefully. For example, was the bus at fault, or was the other vehicle? Was a child struck getting on or of fthe bus because a motorist failed to obey the law and stop for the bus? Were serious injuries avoided because the bus structure provided excellent overall crash protection even under severe circumstances? Additionally, local school boards often debate issues such as funding for pupil transportation,whether school buses should have safety belts, and bus driver training requirements. This fact sheet also provides useful background information for those stories. Statistics Outstanding safety record. There is no safer way to transport a child than in a school bus. Fatal crashes involving school bus occupants are rare events, even though school buses serve daily in every community. Every school day, some 475,000 yellow school buses transport more than 25 million children to and from schools and school-related activities. Driving your children to school is not safer. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences estimates that every year more than 800 school-aged children are killed as occupants in other motor vehicles or as pedestrians or bicyclists during “normal school transport hours.” Most of these deaths could be prevented if children rode in school buses. Parents need to know that driving a child to school—or allowing them to ride to school with other teenagers--is not a safety smart decision—hands down, the school bus is the safest way to and from school. Commitment to excellence. Your child’s school bus meets or exceeds federal and state laws involving safety,security, vehicle emissions and driver skills and other qualifications. Largest mass transit program in the U.S. School buses provide approximately 10 billion student trips per year ---8.8 billion "to-and-from school" trips and an estimated 1.2 billion activity trips. In contrast, transit buses provide only about 5.2 billion unlinked passenger trips each year in the U.S.(i.e. getting to a destination by using a single bus instead of multiple connections). Yet, pupil transportation receives no federal funding. Occupant Fatalities. Based on the latest federal statistics, last year, 5 children were killed as passengers in school buses Forty-seven states did not have a single child killed as a school bus passenger. When a fatality occurs it typically involves severe circumstances. Pedestrian fatalities. Last year, 29 children were killed as pedestrians getting on or off a school bus, or while waiting at the school bus stop—usually the result of motorists passing a stopped school bus illegally. (School bus traveling to / from school or school activities)
*Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). 2005 is the latest available data. Safety Equipment Required on School Buses School buses are equipped with more safety equipment than any other vehicle on the road. This is by design because federal safety regulators and state pupil transportation officials always err on the side of providing an extra margin of safety. The size of the school bus alone gives it an important advantage in all but the most catastrophic circumstances. Key federal safety requirements includes:
Why No Seat Belts on School Buses? Especially after a local crash, parents often ask, “My car has seat belts. Why not my child’s school bus?” A school bus is very different than the family car, so a different occupant protection strategy has been used since April 1, 1977. Because of its superior size and extensive structural and other safety equipment a school bus tends to come out best in most crashes. Instead of seat belts, school buses use a passive approach called “compartmentalization, ”well padded, high back, energy absorbing seats. Simply stated, the goal of this approach is to package children like eggs. It has performed extremely well in providing a high level of safety to the many sizes of children who ride school buses, ranging from pre-schoolers up to high school football players riding to games in full gear. In 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency responsible for school bus safety requirements, completed an extensive evaluation of school bus passenger protection and reported to the Congress these findings:
NHTSA also said that if states and local school districts decide to require lap/shoulder belts they should be aware of“unintended consequences,” including reduced bus capacity (only two children to a seat instead of three to accommodate lap/shoulder belts), meaning that fewer children could be served unless additional buses were purchased to offset the capacity loss. Reduced capacity could result in more children being injured or killed because they would be forced to walk, ride bicycles, or ride to school with parents or other students. The agency advised Congress, states and local school districts not to force these less safe alternatives. NAPT does not oppose lap/shoulder belts in school buses if beyond a reasonable doubt they would improve the safety of children riding in school buses. But it is NHTSA’s job to make this regulatory determination. Some states on their own have begun installing seat belts. In February 2007 NAPT formally petitioned NHTSA to reevaluate on a priority basis its school bus seating standard “with the goal of establishing a safety system that will definitively enhance the current passenger crash protection for all children that ride a school bus.” In the summer of 2007 NHTSA held a public meeting to discuss whether the addition of lap/shoulder seat belts, or other protective measures, would further improve the safety of children riding in large school buses. NHTSA announced that later in 2007 it would issue a Notice of Proposed Rule-making to seek formal comments on whatever measures it concludes would be the most promising. At a later date, a final rule would be issued bringing an end to the uncertainty. The agency could propose the addition of lap/shoulder seat belts, improvements to the existing “compartmentalization” requirement, a combination of these two, or that the existing “compartmentalization”requirement is performing well within the framework of the cost vs. benefit calculation that NHTSA must conduct before issuing a federal requirement. Other Key Facts Commitment to clean air. Many generations of Americans have been transported safely in diesel-powered school buses with no known ill health effects. Even before government requirements the school bus industry encouraged and used the best possible emissions practices. As older buses are retired, most are replaced with latest “green” diesel engines or natural gas, and all buses in the U.S. now use the much cleaner ultra low sulfur diesel fuel. Model year 2007 school buses are 60 times cleaner than those built in 1990, and since 2003 some 12,000 school buses have been retrofitted with emissions recovery technology. Your child’s school bus is driven by a professional. While the structure of school bus provides protection in crashes, it’s the skill and performance of highly trained school bus drivers that often prevents crashes and other incidents. Drivers all have a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) with school bus endorsement; and receive training in security, emergency medical and student behavior management. They are also subject to random drug/alcohol testing and other requirements. Security. In the post 9/11 world, the security of children riding in school buses, and at the facilities where buses are stored is a major concern. Even without federal guidelines or any funding, the school bus industry conducted its own assessment and training of operators and drivers. |
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Last update: 7/10/2009 |