With the new school year underway, and National School Bus Safety Week beginning Monday, Oct. 16, Safe Kids Carroll County reminds parents that school buses are eight times safer than other vehicles.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, four to six school-age children die each year on school transportation vehicles. That's less than one-hundredth of one percent of all traffic fatalities nationwide.
School buses are, by far, the safest way for kids of all ages to get to and from school. School buses are designed with safety features no other vehicles have. The padded, high-backed seats on school buses are close together to create protective compartments, like egg cartons. Children are not likely to be ejected from a school bus in a crash if they are seated properly — upright and facing forward.
To parents who ask why most school buses do not have seat belts is that the purpose of seat belts is to prevent ejection, which is usually fatal and almost always catastrophic. There is not a significant risk of ejection from a large school bus.
Students are about 70 times more likely to get to school safely when taking a bus instead of traveling by car. That's because school buses are the most regulated vehicles on the road; they're designed to be safer than passenger vehicles in preventing crashes and injuries; and in every state, stop-arm laws protect children from other motorists.
Different by design
School buses are designed so that they're highly visible and include safety features such as flashing red lights, cross-view mirrors and stop-sign arms. They also include protective seating, high crush standards and rollover protection features.
Protected by the law
Laws protect students who are getting off and on a school bus by making it illegal for drivers to pass a school bus while dropping off or picking up passengers, regardless of the direction of approach. More children are killed and injured crossing the street at bus stops than riding on a school bus. Teach your children about the 10-foot danger zone around the school bus, where the driver can't see children on the ground. Young children should take eight giant steps away from the bus to be sure the bus driver can see them. Older kids who must cross the street in front of the bus should look to the bus driver for an "OK" sign before crossing.
School Bus Safety Week
Safe Kids Carroll County is celebrating School Bus Safety Week at Elmer Wolfe Elementary this year the week of October 16. Please remember that as drivers to obey state laws that prohibit passing a stopped school bus or approaching within a certain distance.
Safe Kids Carroll County works to prevent accidental childhood injury, the leading killer of children 14 and under.
Maggie Rauser is the Safe Kids Coalition coordinator for the Carroll County Health Department.
