The Safety of School Buses

Most articles on school bus safety discuss how the rider can protect himself when riding the bus, not how the bus protects the rider. This article will attempt to discuss the latter.

Each year, approximately 440,000 public school buses travel approximately 4.3 billion miles to transport 23.5 million children to and from school and school-related activities. School bus safety is proclaimed as one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States. On average, each year 11 passengers under the age of 19 die in school bus related crashes, whereas 5,495 children under the age of 19 died as passengers or drivers in all other types of vehicles in 1996.

Pre-crash Safety Standards:

• Conspicuity: This guideline recommends that all school buses be painted "school bus yellow". The NHTSA believes that there is a safety advantage to the uniformity of color that makes school buses easy to recognize. A recent rulemaking also requires that all emergency exits have retro-reflective tape around the outside perimeter to aid in nighttime rescues.
• Stop Arms: This standard requires stop arrows on all school buses manufactured after September 1992. This standard has since been modified to allow for additional light sources, which will inform motorists to stop for a school bus while loading or unloading school children.
• Mirrors: This standard has been amended to require that the driver be able to see directly, or through a system of mirrors, certain areas in front of and along both sides of the school bus. This gives the driver a better view of those areas and helps reduce the number of children killed by the school bus during loading or unloading.
• School Bus Passenger Seating and Crash Protection: This standard requires performance standards for wheelchair tie-downs and occupant restraint systems.

Crash Safety:

• Occupant Protection: Through injury and fatality data, existing research, and public comments, NHTSA, along with the AMF Corporation, concluded that the best way to provide crash protection to children on large school buses was to use "compartmentalization." This method provides a protective envelope consisting of strong, closely spaced seats that have energy-absorbing seat backs.
• Pre-School Age: Based on crash test results, the NHTSA determined that pre-school age children should be in a child restraint system, just like in the family car, when they are on the school bus. NHTSA has recommended the installation of lap belts or anchorages designed for securing child restraint systems on large school buses. They do not however, recommend the use of lap belts alone as an occupant protection device for this age group.
• Seat Belts: Up to this point, research has determined that safety belts would not substantially reduce the fatalities and injuries resulting from school bus crashes. Agencies are however, continuing to gather research, and will adjust their recommendations should the proper data become available.

Post-Crash Safety:

• Emergency Exits: This standard requires additional emergency exits on school buses and specifies that retro-reflective tape be placed around the exterior perimeter of all emergency exits.
• Full System Integrity: This standard ensures that fuel systems do not leak when impacted by a 4000-pound rigid face barrier at any point and any angle.
• School Bus Body Joint Strength: This standard specifies requirements for the strength of the body panel joints in school bus bodies.

Additional standards exist for the brake systems, lamps and reflective devices, tires, head restraints, steering control, windshields, side doors, flammability, fuel systems, and rollover protection.

Another issue that has been addressed is that of handrails. NHTSA is aware of six fatal incidents and many more non-fatal involving the snagging of clothing, book bags, and other items on bus handrails. Through press releases and education to increase public awareness and inspections and recalls for repair, the problem is being corrected.

With all of these standards in place it is easy to see why school bus transportation is considered to be the safest form of transportation in the United States. School buses are, after all, carrying the future of the nation.