Troubling Trend of Illegal School Bus Passing Continues, National Survey Reports

July 24, 2024

Children crossing street from school bus stop. — Image courtesy of Safe Fleet.

The estimated number of motorists who illegally pass school bus stops rose nearly 4 percent during the 2023-2024 school year.

So says the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation 12th voluntary survey of states and school bus drivers, results of which were released Tuesday at the National School Transportation Association Annual Meeting and Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Adjusted for all school buses operating nationwide, NASDPTS extrapolated that the 66,322 motorists observed by 98,065 participating school bus drivers during a one-day count across 35 states equates to 45.2 million illegal passing violations during a 180-day school year nationwide.

While only 74 more illegal passings were observed during afternoon routes than morning routes, 97 percent of incidents occurred on the left side of the bus. Just over three percent occurring on the right side, but such instances are especially dangerous because that is where students board and exit. Nearly 15,000 more oncoming motorists passed school buses than those following behind.

When comparing this past school year’s actual number of observed illegal passings with those on one day during the 2022-2023 school year, the increase was actually over 6 percent. Participating states reported 62,482 motorists observed breaking school bus stop laws to NASDPTS for 2022-2023, which was extrapolated to mean that 43.5 million incidents could have occurred across all 50 states and D.C.

“The illegal passing of stopped school buses continues to be the greatest safety danger to children,” said NASDPTS President Mike Stier in a statement. “We at the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services hope the results of this survey remind all motorists to pay attention to the yellow school bus, to follow the laws in their state, and stop to allow for the safe loading and unloading of each school bus, and to their part for the safety of our children. We encourage each state to use this information to bring attention to this critical safety issue and engage all resources necessary to ensure each child is protected.”

NASDPTS has referred to illegal passing as an “epidemic” due to the high and increasing numbers of illegal passing incidents, according to its annual survey. Though one child death is too many, relatively few students are killed each year by motorists who ignore the extended school bus stop arms and flashing red lights. The National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey conducted by the Kansas State Department of Education reported four student deaths at school bus stops, two of whom were killed by illegally passing vehicles, during the 2020-2021 school year. This school year included COVID-19-forced school lockdowns nationwide.

The 2021-2022 school year survey found that two of the five student loading and unloading fatalities were at the hands of illegal passing motorists. The most recent survey, for the 2022-2023 school year, reported two of the three fatalities were caused by illegal passing.

Over the 53 years of the Kansas survey, the school bus has killed over 56 percent of the 1,267 report fatalities, compared to over 39 percent by illegal passers.

The Kansas survey relies on data provided by local and state law enforcement when a student is hit or killed at a school bus stop. To count, the school bus generally must be on the scene at the time of the incident, which means other injuries and deaths that could occur aren’t necessarily counted toward the total

There are also no official numbers for students injured by illegal passers each year. But estimates from online news reports it could range from the dozens to hundreds.

Meanwhile, this year’s NASDPTS survey noted that the participating school bus drivers account for 26.4 percent of the entire national pool. That means, according to NASDPTS, there are about 371,450 school bus drivers currently certified for student transportation, an increase of 1.3 percent from last year.