Everyday millions of children take the school bus to and from school. And often, there is one question on every parent’s mind: how safe are these buses, and are they putting children at risk? It turns out that both the National Academy of Science and the Department of Transportation agree that school buses are the safest way to get children to and from school. It’s estimated that 480,000 school buses carry over 26 million children, more than half of America’s school children, to and from school each day. Most of this transportation occurs without any serious incidents.
School buses are designed to be safer than passenger vehicles in both avoiding crashes and preventing injuries should an accident occur. All school buses are equipped with numerous safety features, including the color and size of the buses themselves, reinforced sides, flashing red lights, cross view mirrors, and crossing and stop sign arms, which help ensure children are protected and secure both on and off the bus.
Trained Professionals Drive Your Children
In addition to this, school bus drivers are trained professionals. They receive specialized training in multiple areas, including student behavior management, loading and unloading, and security and emergency procedures. They also undergo regular drug and alcohol testing, and they receive regular driving checks. The qualifications that the school bus industry set for their drivers involve safety, security, health, and driver standards that meet and sometimes exceed both state and federal laws. In addition to this, traffic laws related to school buses are specifically designed to keep students safe, and are strictly enforced. All of these standards ensure that school buses are the safest mode of transportation for the nation’s schoolchildren.
The Safest Mode of Transportation
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), students are 50 times more likely to arrive at school safely if they take the bus than if they drive themselves or ride with friends, and about 20 times more likely to arrive alive if they took the bus than if a parent drives them. To be sure, half of all children struck by cars near schools are hit by parents driving other children to school. During normal school hours, 58% of all student fatalities involve students who are traveling by teen driver, with 23% involving an adult driver. Only 1% of all fatalities, however, occur when students are traveling by school bus.
Keeping Cars off the Road
In addition to being the safest mode of transportation for students, school buses also help keep other vehicles off the road, saving money, fuel, and emissions. It is estimated that school buses keep 17.3 million cars off roads surrounding schools each morning. This accounts for 2.3 billion gallons of fuel, for a savings of $6 billion, keeping 44.6 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Speak with Colombo Law
If you have further questions about the safety of school buses and your children, or if you have a child that has been injured in a vehicular crash, do not hesitate to contact Colombo Law. If your child has been hurt in a school bus-related accident, we can advocate on your behalf to help you recover compensation immediately.
