PROMOTING SAFETY AWARENESS

First Student celebrates 41st Anniversary “National School Bus Safety Week” October 22-26 with the theme: “Be Aware! Cross with Care!”

First Student Sponsors a School Bus Safety Program

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Oct. 8, 2007) -- To prevent school bus accidents and highlight the importance of school bus safety awareness First Student is sponsoring school bus safety programs during National School Bus Safety Week, October 22-26, 2007. The theme for the event is “Be Aware! Cross with Care!”

The program emphasizes the importance and benefits of training and encouraging students to obey school bus safety rules while waiting at the bus stop and getting on and off the school bus each day.

Celebrated the third week of October each year, School Bus Safety Week promotes awareness and education on the local and state level through poster and speech contest, holding school bus safety programs in elementary schools and other events. School districts throughout Florida will be hosting activities for parents, children and bus drivers to highlight the importance of school bus safety both on and off the bus.

A study released by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences in June 2002, “The Relative Risks of School Travel: A National Perspective and Guidance for Local Community Risk Assessment,” reported that: “Each year approximately 800 school-aged children are killed in motor vehicle crashes during normal school travel hours.  Of these 800 deaths, about 20 (2 percent) – 5 school bus passengers and 15 pedestrians – are school bus-related.  The other 98 percent of the school-aged deaths occur in other motor vehicles … or to pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists.”

While school bus transportation is the safest form of ground transportation available- and eight times safer than traveling to school in a family vehicle- occasional accidents still happen; that's why safety awareness in so important.

“Loading and unloading children are the most dangerous aspects of school bus transportation,” said John Zeigler, Regional Vice President for First Student. He added that too often motorists fail to heed the warning lights and do not stop for the stopped school bus. “By celebrating School bus safety week throughout our district, we have the opportunity to call attention to and to promote a key area of concern with regard to the safety of our children in an effort to prevent future injuries or fatalities.”

The American School Bus Council offers the following tips for school bus riders:

• Be alert to traffic. Check both ways for cars before stepping off the bus.
• Make eye contact with the driver, and wait for the bus driver's signal before crossing the street.
• Walk in front of the bus; never walk behind the bus to cross the street.
• While waiting for the bus, stay in a safe place away from the street.
• Before leaving the sidewalk, look for the flashing lights.
• Never go under the bus to retrieve something you've dropped.

Additionally, school bus drivers in each jurisdiction are trained to see the students from different viewing angles and to count the number of students at each stop.

About School Bus Safety Week

School Bus Safety Week- established in 1966 by the National Association of Pupil Transportation, Nation Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services National School Transportation Association and supported by the NHTSA- educates students, parents and the motoring public about the safety of our nation's children who are transported daily on yellow school buses. This week also recognizes the hard work and dedication of school professionals, especially the school bus drivers who ensure a safe journey for our children each and every day.

First Student is Sponsoring a School Bus Safety Program

First Student will be sponsoring two school bus safety programs during National School Bus Safety Week to promote safety awareness among young students and the community. The first program is scheduled on October 23, 2007 at Hogan-Spring Glen Elementary, located at 6736 Beach Blvd. , Jacksonville , FL and the second program is scheduled on October 25, 2007 at Arlington Elementary, located at 1201 University Blvd. N , Jacksonville , Florida . The programs will start at 10:00 A.M. in the school bus loading zone. The children will be shown the danger zones of a school bus, how to safely wait at the bus stop, how to safely load and unload the school bus, and most importantly how to safely cross the street at bus stop. Their will be clowns and balloons to help make this event fun and memorable. Each student that participates in the program will receive a Safe Rider certificate and a school bus safety-coloring book from First Student. In addition, Operation Life Saver is sponsoring bags, pencils, bookmarkers and safety handouts.

In addition, First Student will be disturbing school bus safety coloring books and safety handouts for students and parents to approximately 10,000 elementary school bus riders that ride the First Student's school buses each day in Duval County . Jim Searcy, Rivers Bus and RV Sales, Inc. sponsored printing cost for safety handouts.

About American School Bus Council

American School Bus Council represents unified voice of the school transportation industry, including the public and private sector as well as the manufacturing segment-the more than 450,000 yellow school buses transporting 25 million children to and from school each day- and is committed to providing safe, effective, efficient and healthy transportation for our nation's schoolchildren. Its members include National Association for Pupil Transpiration (NAPT), National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS), National School Transportation Association (NSTA), Bluebird Corp. of Fort Valley, Ga., IC Corporation of Warrenville, III. and Thomas Built Buses of High Point, N.C.

If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with John Zeigler, please call Cherrie Beardsley at (904) 334-2669 or e-mail Cherrie.Beardsley@fs.firstgroupamerica.com.