Bus Accidents
According to accident statistics, motorcoaches are among the safest vehicles on the road; however, motorcoaches transport 631 million passengers annually, with each bus carrying a substantial number of people at high exposure to risk from a highway crash. One of the primary causes of passenger injury in motorcoach buses is passengers' being thrown from their seating area during an accident. In its 1999 special investigation report on bus crashworthiness, the Safety Board concluded that the overall injury risk to occupants in motorcoach accidents involving rollover and ejection might be reduced significantly by retaining the occupant in the seating compartment throughout the collision. The Board asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to require new motorcoach bus occupant protection systems that retain passengers in their seating area. In addition, stronger bus roofs and easy-to-open bus window emergency exits are needed to enhance safety. Safety is bolstered by adequate law and protection in place.
School Bus Accidents
Students are nearly eight times safer riding in a school bus than in cars. Each school day, 440,000 public school buses transport 23.5 million children. The fatality and injury rates associated with school buses are consistent from year to year. On average, about seven passengers die in school bus crashes each year. Since 1996 there have been about 417,705 fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those, 0.33 percent (1,387) were classified as school transportation-related. Since 1996, 1,536 people have died in school transportation-related crashes - an average of 140 fatalities per year. An average of 20 schoolage children die in school transportation-related traffic crashes each year - 5 occupants of school transportation vehicles and 14 pedestrians."Most of the people who lost their lives in those crashes (72%) were occupants of other vehicles involved. Non occupants (pedestrians, bicyclists, etc.) accounted for 20 percent of the deaths, and occupants of school transportation vehicles accounted for 7 percent.
Since 1996, 159 school-age pedestrians (younger than 19) have died in school transportation-related crashes. Over two-thirds (67%) were killed by school buses, 6 percent by vehicles functioning as school buses, and 28 percent by other vehicles involved in the crashes. One-half (50%) of all school-age pedestrians killed in school transportation-related crashes were between the ages of 5 and 7.
Between 1996 and 2006, 96 crashes occurred in which at least one occupant of a school transportation vehicle died. More than half of those crashes (57%) involved at least one other vehicle. In the 41 single-vehicle crashes, 48 occupants - 14 drivers and 34 passengers - were killed. In the 55 multiple-vehicle crashes, 34 drivers and 32 passengers died. In the 41 single-vehicle crashes, the first harmful events were as follows: striking a fixed object (23 crashes), a person falling from the vehicle (6 crashes), the vehicle overturning (4 crashes), the vehicle colliding with a train (2 crashes), other non-collision (2 crashes), and collision with a non-fixed object (2 crashes).
In 53 percent of all crashes involving fatalities to occupants of a school transportation vehicle, the principal point of impact was the front of the vehicle. Since 1996, 6 drivers and 7 passengers have died in school bus body vehicles providing transportation for purposes other than school or school-related activities (churches, civic organizations, etc.). In 1987, one such multi-vehicle crash resulted in the deaths of 27 occupants, including the driver.
