School Bus Transportation News at STN Media

National Loading/Unloading Fatality
Survey Shows School Bus Spike

TOPEKA, Kan. - The 35th Annual National School Bus Loading & Unloading Survey reports 14 students were killed by a school bus during the 2004-2005 school year, nearly a 300-percent increase over the previous four-year average.

Six student deaths in the loading/unloading zone were caused by motorists who illegally passed stopped school buses, the lowest such number in the past four years. Combined there were 20 total student deaths in the loading/unloading zone, slightly more than double the number of student deaths recorded during the 2003-2004 school year.

Fifteen of the 50 states plus Washington, D.C., reported at least one student fatality in the loading/unloading zone. The survey was compiled during the fall and winter by the Kansas State Department of Education's school bus safety education unit and released on Jan. 19.

Since 1970, the first year Kansas began recording loading/unloading fatality statistics, 1,121 students have died either as a result of being hit either by their own school bus or by an illegally-passing driver. That first year 75 student fatalities were recorded, but that figure had dropped dramatically to an average of about 15 students killed over the past decade. The most recent spike was the largest number of fatalities since 1999 (22).

Five- and six-year-old students again represented the largest category of children killed, six and five deaths respectively, and accounted for over half of the total fatalities. Three-fourths of all fatalities were female.

"We had 15 females and 5 boys (killed); why's that?" asked Larry Bluthardt, Kansas' state director of pupil transportation. "You have to take into consideration, are more girls riding?"

Twelve of the 20 total loading/unloading fatalities occurred in the afternoon during student egress, with most incidents occurring mid-week. Seventeen deaths were reported on dry road conditions, 15 occurred on city streets and 14 occurred during clear weather conditions. All but one of the fatalities occurred during daylight, with 12 occurring in urban and eight occurring in rural areas.

If anything, Bluthardt said the study demonstrates the ongoing need for increased and sustained training of bus drivers.

"This is what we pound into people's heads with (industry consultant) Dick Fischer's (school bus safety programs)," he said. "Mirrors, mirrors, mirrors."