As children across the nation prepare for another school year, millions will be heading to school for the very first time. Kindergartners are notorious for envying bigger kids who seem to have all the independence and confidence in the world. Little do they know!

Tom Vanderbilt, author and the proprietor of the blog "How We Drive," touches on the subject of smoking while driving, prompted by a comment made by a reader, a school bus driver, in an earlier post:

Crashes happen. They are a byproduct of life. But accidents they rarely are. Usually, a traffic collision results from some sort of operator error. Short of a vehicle malfunction, they usually arise due to driver behavior that could have been avoided. That's a testament to safety of school bus drivers, as on average six children die on-board the bus each year.