In the 2006 edition of its Most Wanted Transportation Safey Improvements, the National Transportation Board listed the following:
Improve School Bus Crossing Safety
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Collisions between trains and schools buses are infrequent but they do occur. The Nov. 1995 collision near Fox River Grove, Ill. is probably best known. As bad as it was though -- seven fatalities and 25 injuries -- it is not the worst. That dubious honor appears to belong to a train-school bus collision that occured prior to World War II. In 1938 a train slammed into a school bus near Riverton, Utah killing 24 youngsters!
In the belief that if society doesn't remember its history it is doomed to repeat it, the editors of School Transportation News undertook a study to locate all known train-school bus collisions. The study found 165 train-school bus collisions between 1902 and 2000. Of these, 34 resulted in fatalities to school bus passengers resulting in 181 deaths and 546 injuries. The criteria, for the most, required that the bus involved was a traditional yellow school bus or a bus in school service transporting pupils. Staged collisions were excluded.
The study originally focused on school buses, but as more information became available collisions between trains and other types of buses were uncovered and are reported here as well. Information about collisions with highway coaches and public transit buses, and one in Russia, are included as well.
Sources for this investigation include the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Interstate Commerce Commission, reports and articles from daily newspapers, state archives, Operation Lifesaver in both the U.S. and Canada, and the Transportation Safety Board of Transport Canada.
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Federal
Railroad Administration
The most comprehensive source of information is the Federal Railroad
Administration, though it has only collected data since 1975. The
FRA came into existence in the early 1970s but it did not keep records
of any train-bus incidents prior to the mid-1970s. That task was carried
out by the now-defunct Interstate Commerce Commission.
Most of the ICC's accident investigation reports are now stored at the University of Denver where they remain in boxes and crates unopened. However, the US-DOT has a searchable database, the Online Digital Special Collections, that contains the "I.C.C. Historial Railroad Investigation Reports (1911 - 1966)" of railroad accident reports six decades of accident reports. A search of that database uncovered eight train-school bus accidents.
Hotlinks
to Railroad Grade
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A computer search of the FRA's database of all train-bus collisions between January 1975 and December 1996 found a total of 408 accidents. Of the 408 collisions, 141 involved school buses and 267 involved other types of buses. Sixty-six percent of these resulted in no fatalities and no injuries. Trainmen refer to some of these incidents as "fender-benders," noting many are little more than a low speed collision. Lending credance to this view is the fact that 17.8 percent or 73 of all train-bus collisions occured when the bus ran into the train! School buses fared better in these incidents, running into trains in 13.4 percent of all collisions while other styles of buses ran into trains in 21.6 percent of the incidents.
According to the FRA database, seven of the 141 train-school bus collisions reported there resulted in fatalities. Altogether, 19 persons lost their lives in these incidents. An additional 386 school bus passengers or train crew were injured.
In addition to the 141 incidents found in the FRA's database, STN uncovered 20 more train-school bus collisions that resulted in fatalities and injuries. These collisions date back to 1938. These 10 collisions were found in newspaper accounts and accidents investigation reports by the ICC. These collisions resulted in 73 student fatalities and 134 injuries.
Meanwhile, the FRA also reports that 14 of the 267 train-(other) bus collisions resulted in fatalities to either the bus passengers or locomotive crew. Altogether, 42 persons lost their lives. An additional 357 bus passengers or train crew were injured, according to the FRA.
The 408 collisions reported in the FRA database resulted in $ 556,921 damage to school buses and $1,421,852 in damages to all other buses.
National
Transportation Safety Board
While all grade crossing incidents must be reported to the FRA, the
key agency in investigating train-bus collisions is the National Transportation
Safety Board. The NTSB chooses which investigations it wants
to undertake. NTSB then becomes the lead agency and FRA backs it
up with its staff of technical experts. NTSB's policy is to investigate
every train-school bus collision regardless of damages, injuries or
fatalities.
In 2004, and then again in 2006, the NTSB placed improving school bus/grade crossing safety on its Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements list. The Safety Board identified five specific tasks: (1) Install stop signs at passive crossings; (2) Prioritize for upgrade to lights and gates, crossings that school buses traverse that now only have warning signs; (3) Install noise-reducing switches on new buses; (4) Enhance bus driver training and evaluation; and (5) Include grade crossing questions on CDL exams. Click here for more details about the NTSB's Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements, State Issues
| School Bus/Grade Crossing Safety Improvements |  |
| Action on School Bus/Grade Crossing Safety Recommendation |
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By federal law, all grade crossing accidents, whether involving buses, automobiles, trucks, or pedestrians must be reported to the FRA on the "Rail-Highway Grade Crossing Accident/Incident Report Form 6180-57." The form has 10 parts and, if properly filled out, generates extensive, finite details about each incident.
The only type of bus clearly identified in Form 6180-57 is the school bus. The FRA clusters all other types of buses (over-the-road motorcoaches, public transit buses, etc.) under the single classification bus. Thus, for 65 percent of the train-bus collisions in the FRA database it is unclear what type of bus may have been involved in these grade crossing incidents.
The NTSB publishes the results of its investigations of train-bus collisions in a document known as a Highway Accident Report. If the FRA conducts its own formal investigation of the collision the report is known as the FRA C-10-95 report.
Staged
Collisions
Left out of both the FRA and NTSB reports are staged collisions. Occasionally,
a school district or other governmental entity will team up with a
railroad company and/or one of the Operation Lifesaver state programs
to stage a train-school bus collision. They usually do so for educational
purposes. In recent years collisions have been staged in Texas, Florida,
North Carolina, and Calgary, Canada. In the early 1980's Idaho Operation
Lifesaver and the Union Pacific Railroad staged a collision, and developed
a highly regarded video of the accident. The video is titled "Preventing
Disaster at the Crossing." As a result, in recent years, however,
railroads are becoming increasingly reluctant to stage collisions
with school buses due to insurance considerations.
Probably the most spectacular footage of a staged train-bus collision appeared in the 1993 Harrison Ford thriller "The Fugitive." Movie-makers used a Thomas Built Buses transit-style bus in the film. In the collision scene a transfer of prisoners to a federal prison was the setting for a highway accident that landed the bus squarely on a set of tracks in the path of an oncoming freight train.
Canada
A review of the records of Operation Lifesaver, Inc. of Canada and
the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Transport Canada uncovered
18 collisions between trains and buses between 1983 and May, 1998.
Of the 18 incidents in Canada only two were identified as involving
school buses. Canadian authorities reported no fatalities and only
minor injuries in these collisions. As in the U.S., Canada's TSB records
are not complete and only date back to 1983. And, as of 1993, only
collisions resulting in serious injuries or fatalities are reportable
to the TSB.
Decline
of Incidents
A marked decline in the number of train-school bus collisions showed
up beginning in 1984. Although no empirical data exists as to why
the number of incidents took a sharp downturn, it is likely due to
increased educational efforts among school bus drivers.
The sheer number of incidents uncovered in the FRA's database suggest many more train-school bus collisions occured in prior years. For example, in the eight-year period between 1975 and 1983 the FRA reported 91 incidents, an average of 11.4 per year. It is unlikely that a similar number of train-school bus collisions did not occur in the preceeding years. Indeed these data suggest that between 50 and 100 train-school bus collisions occur every decade. The STN investigation found 11 collisions between 1938 and 1974 in sources other than the FRA in which fatalities and injuries occured. The precise number of collisions, including the so-called fender-benders, awaits further research.
Interestingly, the decline in train-school bus collisions began about eight years before a similar decline appeared in the "all other bus" category of train-bus collisions. Moreover, for the same eight-year period 1975 to 1983, the FRA reported 143 collisions, an average of 17.8 per year, in the all other bus category. See Chart 3 below.
Listed elsewhere on this website in chart form are the results of STN's year-long investigation. To be included in this listing, the accident had to meet one or more of the following conditions: (1) The collision involved a vehicle in school transportation service and a train. (2) A fatality occurred to either a student passenger, driver of the bus or train crew. (3) A formal investigation of the collision was conducted, and a formal report published by some government agency-- typically the National Transportation Safety Board or the now-defunct Interstate Commerce Commission. (4) At least one student was injured but no fatalities occured. (This latter criteria was adopted because the FRA conducts its own formal investigations if more than four injuries are reported.) Or (5) The collision was reported by a newspaper of general circulation.
Other sources are government reports, newspaper articles, or, in the case of the 1935 collision near Rockville, Md, an unpublished manuscript.Many collisions reported here met more than one of these criteria.
Six data items were then gathered for each train-school bus collision: (1) the date of the collision, (2) the location of the collision (sometimes a city, other times a county), (3) the number of fatalities and/or injuries, (4) the railroad company involved in the collision, (5) the owner of the school bus, and (6) the source of the information. Six data items, substituting type of bus for ownership of the bus, were collected for all other train-bus collisions. The several staged collisions mentioned in this article were not included. Whenever possible the NTSB "HAR" number, National Technical Information Service "PB" number, FRA number, ICC report number, or name of the newspaper and date of the collision, is supplied. In addition, hotlinks to a summary of some of these incidents are provided.
Chart
3 provides data about the total number of train-bus collisions, covering
all styles of buses, by year in the FRA database.
Webmaster Note: Anyone aware of a train-school bus collision not listed in this report is encouraged to contact the editors of School Transportation News. If the information meets the criteria listed above it will be posted. School Transportation News is solely responsible for the accuracy of the information presented here.
