Every year students die in school bus–related accidents, and every year the fatality totals vary depending on the reporting agency and the criteria used. Sometimes the differences are significant: Whereas the Kansas State Department of Education (DOE) reported 13 student fatalities in the 2009-2010 National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey, STN independent research found twice as many such fatalities that year — 26.
According to James Kraemer, who established 2SafeSchools.org in 1999, 28 school bus–related fatalities occurred in 2009, including 21 student deaths. Kraemer reported 35 such fatalities, including 27 student deaths, for 2010. In addition, NHTSA reports on its website that 118 people total were killed in school bus–related crashes in 2009, including two school bus drivers, three passengers, 21 pedestrians, one cyclist, and 91 occupants of other vehicles. NHTSA and 2SafeSchools.org tracks these fatalities by calendar year, while Kansas DOE and STN calculates them by school year.
“It all depends on how you track it and what’s your count, as well as how many states you consider,” said Kraemer, a newly retired school bus driver who has kept track of school bus–related fatalities since 2000. “We do not try to provide every school bus–related death — there are too many. We try to provide a yearly sampling with accurate detail, and sometimes we have to update them when those details change in news reports.”
