While the final national report has yet to be released, School Transportation News has learned that student fatalities occurring around the school bus while loading or unloading nearly tripled during the 2008-2009 school year from the previous year's study.
Eighteen students were found to have died in the so-called danger zone around the school bus when it is stopped and either receiving or discharging students during the morning or afternoon rides. Only five student fatalities occurred during 2007-2008 and seven the year prior. The 18 fatalities in 2008-2009 represent the most since 20 were recorded in 2004-2005.
The Kansas State Department of Education has prepared the National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey that tracks the number of student deaths at the hands of their own school buses or as a result of other motorists illegally passing stopped school buses since 1970. It relies on accurate reporting from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In the last 39 years, 1,161 children have died while loading and unloading. More than two-thirds of these students were eight years old or younger.
But, for the sake of accuracy, there has been some debate on what types of incidents and where and when they occur should be considered loading and unloading fatalities. For example, many states only report such a fatality if the school bus is on scene but not if the bus had yet to arrive at a stop or had already departed. Independent research by STN editors has found 13 student deaths since August alone at school bus stops or caused as the result of running to catch their bus, as was the case with a 17-year-old high school student this week in Pinellas Park, Fla. [Editor's note: it should be noted two of the students killed at their stops were shot after exiting their school buses].
The final 2008-2009 National Loading and Unloading Survey is expected to be released in early 2010.
