Ensuring School Bus Safety Involves a
Revolving Door of Training

By Ryan Gray | Senior Editor

The early 1970s were a tumultuous, bloody time in the history of modern pupil transportation. Relatively speaking, of course.

In 1970, the first year of the National School Bus Loading & Unloading Survey, the Kansas State Department of Education's School Bus Safety Education Team reported 75 fatalities occurring throughout the 50 states and Washington , D.C.

Compare that to nine deaths occurring during the 2003-2004 school year, six in the loading/unloading zone and tied with the year 2000 for the lowest number of total deaths in the past three-and-a-half decades.

One must remember, and certainly many do, that school bus drivers received little mandated training in 1970. NHTSA regulations had barely been passed, much less implemented. And School Bus Safety Week was merely seven years old, under the tutelage of founder Dick Fischer . It would take another 16 years for Congress to pass the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986, which created a new federal Commercial Drivers License, and almost another decade before states nationwide implemented the law.

But, lo and behold, the very next school year, deaths dropped to 62, then down another four in 1972. Deaths skyrocketed in 1973 to 73, but ever since, the industry has seen marked improvement in reducing the number of student deaths around the school bus stop. View the survey for yourself at www.stnonline.com/stn/schoolbussafety/datastatistics/loading_unloading.htm

Last school year, it is important to note, the school bus itself was responsible for only three of the nine loading/unloading zone deaths. Three too many, most definitely. But when compared to the 25 million school children who ride the approximately 500,000 buses to and from school each day, the figure is quite astonishing.

Six deaths came at the hands of drivers who ignored the stop arm. Unfortunately, these figures are on the rise for the 2004-2005 school year. At press time, 21 total deaths have already been recorded, with six occurring as a result of motorists illegally passing stopped school buses. The school bus is so far responsible for hitting and killing another seven students near the loading/unloading zone, with two other student bicyclists, one child on a moped and one on a sled being struck and killed. There have also been two deaths as a result of ejection after a crash. One Detroit teenager was shot to death moments after unloading his school bus and a pre-school aged girl was run over by her brother's school bus in front of her home.

In fact, when looking at the graph plotting child deaths the past 34 years, a trend develops. Every five or so years, a spike in fatalities occurs. And it is all tied to training.

"It seems like there is an up and down scale, peaks and valleys if you will," said Larry Bluthardt , the Kansas state director of pupil transportation who oversees the unloading/loading zone survey. "I wish I had the glass to look into the future."

He says the industry must make a constant effort to stay on top of the three Es - education, enforcement and engineering - and help drive down the number of student deaths around the school bus.

Education begins with the child at a young age, from their very first school bus trip and continuing throughout their entire school career. It includes frequent school bus driver training and re-training. It involves informing parents through the use of public service announcements developed by the local department of education, the National PTA, NAPT , NASDPTS, and NSTA. It educates the motoring public on school bus stop laws.

Engineering begins at the National Conference of School Transportation, which reconvenes for the 14 th time May 15-19 in Williamsburg , Mo. That's where plans - coincidentally or not every five years - are made for developing new equipment and operational practices for increasing safety on and around school buses. Where crossing gates, and stop arms were born. Where discussions are held on widening roads to allow school buses to pull off on the shoulder to pick up or drop off students.

Enforcement involves your local police, Sheriff's department and highway patrol and draws from education and engineering. Transportation departments, Bluthardt advises, should invite officers to become regular visitors to the local bus barn for a free cup of coffee so drivers can educate them on the school bus routes. So they can recommend increased patrols and law enforcement at areas with high incidence of illegal passers and speeders. So that new engineering improvements can be brought before local officials.

It's a vicious circle of vigilance that will reverse the trend of death during the second part of this year.

"You can continue with that education at any level you want," Bluthardt says. "It's a constant effort."