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Survey Polls Drivers, Aides on Wheelchair Safety


By Michelle Fisher Researchers Mary Ellen Buning and


Patricia Karg just wouldn’t take “I don’t know” for an answer when they surveyed state pupil transportation directors last year on wheelchair passenger safety on school buses. So, the pair created a new survey earlier this year designed to gauge the knowledge of drivers and attendants — and the results are in. Dr. Buning of the University of Louisville


said she and co-investigator Karg, who is from the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, received 391 responses this time around. Buning said she was pleased that 86 percent came from school bus drivers (335) and 14 percent from attendants (56). Teir research was funded by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wheelchair Transportation Safety. “We sent it to the state directors first


In Which Region Do You Live? West = 20.7% Midwest = 27.1% Northeast = 11.7% South = 40.6% 0 10 20 30 Who is Your Employer? School district = 76.4% State/local govenment = 8.8% Contractor/separate company = 13.3% Other = 1.6% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 22 School Transportation News Magazine October 2011


Rural 33.6%


Suburban 30.7%


Urban 35.7%


40 50 Type of Route on Job


30 to 39 yrs. 9.4%


20 to 29 yrs. 19.1%


1 mo. to 9 yrs. 32.9%


10 to19 yrs. 37.3%


because we thought they would be very knowledgeable about what’s going on in their state, but we had a low response rate,” Buning said. Te study’s main objective, Buning


stated, was to find out whether WC19- compliant (or “transit”) wheelchairs would keep children safer on the school bus (www.stnonline.com/go/839). To reach those in direct contact with students in wheelchairs, she and Karg surveyed school bus operators on not only their knowledge of wheelchair securement and restraint systems but also on the amount of such training they had received. When asked about the specifics


of their training, many respondents checked off more than one box. Results showed that 67 percent had hands-on training; 64 percent, on-the-job training; 59 percent, classroom lectures; 57


percent, video or computer training; 54 percent, classroom demonstrations; and 53 percent, workbooks. Only 6.5 percent did not receive any hands-on training, according to Buning. “Several subjects referenced that they


would prefer training more often in order to stay up to date and to become more comfortable with the different strategies used to secure wheelchairs, especially when they first began their jobs,” Buning said. Under written comments, one school bus driver reported: “Twenty years ago,


Years of Experience as Driver/Attendant


30 to 39 yrs. 9.4%


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