The 2007-2008 school year saw six student fatalities in school buses compared with 368 in other passenger vehicles, according to data pulled from the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System for all crashes that occurred during the normal morning and afternoon commute hours.
Over the past decade, at least 37 children ages 5-18 have died inside a school bus as a result of a crash compared to 5,595 in other vehicles driven by parents, friends or others. Meanwhile, 936 student pedestrians were killed while walking or biking to and from school.
The data is extrapolated each year by consultant Doug Snyder for the California Association of School Transportation Officials from overall NHTSA FARS data for all vehicles at all times of day. [Editor's note - The school bus specific report can be downloaded from the CASTO Web site.] The 2007-2008 school bus report “Riding Smart” was made available today and gauges all crashes in which at least one person was killed to determine a national average of normal school commute injuries and fatalities. These crashes occurred from 6 to 8:59 a.m. and 2 to 4:59 p.m., Monday through Friday, from Sept. 1 though June 15.
Texas led the nation with 27 total student fatalities. Two, in the 12- to 13-year-old age bracket, died one week apart from each other in March 2008 in separate school bus crashes occurring in Dallas and in Hildago, Texas. Other states with more than 20 student deaths, all in non-school bus vehicles, were Florida (24), California (23) and Pennsylvania (21). Mississippi and Missouri both suffered 18 student fatalities in other passenger vehicles.
The four Minnesota school bus riders, also 12- to 13 years old, died as a result of the Cottonwood crash on Feb. 19, 2008, when a motorist who was illegally in the United States and without a driver’s license ran a stop, causing a vehicle pile up.
Meanwhile, children riding in school buses were found to be nearly 10 times safer then those who walked or biked to and from school, as 62 children died during the 2007-2008 school year, often times being hit by another motorist. California and Florida led the nation in the number of these types of fatalities with six each. Twenty-six states in total logged at least one student pedestrian death.
The difference between onboard school bus fatalities and injuries and those in other motor vehicles were in line with historic data that shows school buses are on average 12 times safer for students traveling to and from school. Passenger vehicles accounted for 496 total student injuries, 209 of which were incapacitating student injuries that are defined by NHTSA as serious to minor injuries — such as head trauma, internal injuries, broken bones or lacerations — that warranted emergency room treatment and/or hospital admittance. Meanwhile, 287 less severe non-capacitating injuries that only required medical treatment prior to the child being released. This is compared to only 17 incapacitating and 45 non-incapacitating injuries in school buses.
Snyder will provide an analysis of the report in the January 2010 print issue of School Transportation News.