US
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
News:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs
NHTSA
37-02
NHTSA Sends School Bus Report to Congress
Every
year, the nation's 450,000 public school buses travel more than 4.3 billion
miles to transport 23.5 million children to and from school and school-related
activities, the agency said. In comparison with other forms of transportation,
the report shows that students are nearly eight times safer riding in a school
bus than in cars. The fatality rate for school buses is 0.2 fatalities per 100
million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) compared to 1.5 fatalities per 100 million
VMT for cars.
This
safety record is a result of the Department of Transportation's requirements for
compartmentalization on large school buses, and lap belts plus
compartmentalization on small school buses. Compartmentalization is the name for
the protective envelope created by strong, closely-spaced seats
The Great Buckle Debate
At Issue
It seems like a simple enough thing, doesn't it? Not to mention common sense. If we're buckling up in our cars everyday, shouldn't we be buckling up on our school buses too?
And yet the answer is not easy as the question. Fact of the matter is, in a vehicle like a car, seat belts do save lives. But a school bus is not a car. In fact, they are very different vehicles indeed...as different as night and day.
And it's those differences that help make a compelling argument against the use of seat belts in a school bus environment.
Unlike the family car - which carries it's passengers low to the road and in the same plane as a colliding vehicle - a school bus carries it's riders above the impact zone and away from the engine.
So school bus passengers don't face the same dangers of impact as their counterparts driving in cars might. And they don't share the same inside hazards either. In fact, in a head-on collision, school bus occupants are likely to strike only the seat in front of them.
Today's School Bus
Today's school bus is a far cry from what many of us remember as kids. Seats are higher now, with significantly thicker padding, and that padding now extends around the entire seat, eliminating the metal bar of earlier buses. They're closer now too, and with less room between them, the chances of additional injuries are reduced. It's something called "compartmentalization." And what it means is that each seat and the rear of the seat in front of it forms a natural barrier. Each serves as a separate "compartment," guarding against severe injury and ejection of the passenger. In a frontal impact, the passenger is thrown against the padded rear of the seat in front of him or her. Compartmentalization is the ideal protection for our children because it is "passive" protection. (Kind of like air bags in cars.) There is no need for compliance or education of the children.. it's simply a natural function of the bus itself.
Let's Make It Safer
In a head-on collision, a lap-belted child in a school bus is thrown forward, but the lap belt holds the lower torso in place...forcing the upper body to pivot about the belt. This puts the brunt of the impact on the head and neck as they strike the rear of the seat in front of them. (OUCH !) The backlash of the collision then forces the head and neck to snap backward. (Double OUCH !!) A situation with great potential for a serious injury. Unbuckled passengers, by comparison, sustain far fewer injuries - primarily because the crash forces are spread out over a larger area of the body.
Crash tests conducted by Transport Canada, the Canadian counterpart to our own Department of Transportation, clearly indicated that lap-belted dummies received higher head injury scores than un-belted dummies in a frontal bus collision.
So, if seat belts are not the answer, WHAT IS? The answer is outside, in a 10-foot perimeter surrounding the bus...a place known as The Danger Zone. On average, the number of fatal injuries occurring outside the bus is four times greater than the number occurring inside the bus. A recent study reviewing school bus fatalities over a 10-year period found:
- The greatest number of fatalities occurred by the right rear tire of the students own bus.
- The second most deadly area was at the left front of the bus, where the deaths were caused by passing motorists failing to heed the stop-lights and sign of the bus.
- 15% of the fatalities occurred by the left front wheel.
- 10% occurred by the left rear wheel; while
- Another 5% occurred at the right front end, where the student was killed by a passing motorist.
Clearly then, a major player in the arena of school fatalities is education. Educating our school bus drivers, our children, and perhaps even more importantly - passing motorists, who are frequently ignorant of the laws concerning school buses and are the greatest hazard for children riding the school buses of today.
What We Can Do...
- Better driver and passenger education, stressing the deadly importance of the school bus "Danger Zone."
- Promote rules and regulations regarding school buses and passing motorists, including increased fines and penalties for improperly passing a school bus during loading and unloading.
- And keep in mind: At 8 times safer to ride than the family car, the school bus is the world's safest form of over-the-road transportation.
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