FIRST TAKE When you have only so much money, common sense dictates that you spend it in the right
places. Tat’s Budget 101 stuff. When it comes to school bus safety, it is a vast understatement to say that this industry repeat-
What Cost?
By Ryan Gray Safety at
edly goes above and beyond in keeping all children as safe as possible on their way to and from school. Tere’s a lot to the fact that, based on numerous federal studies, children in the United States and Canada have at their disposal what amounts to the safest mode of travel to and from school, and perhaps to and from anywhere in the world. And slowly but surely we’re starting to see the great American yellow school bus, or at least its safety and training concepts, extend beyond North American shores and sprout across the globe, certainly in England and across Europe, and with seeds taking root in such places as China, Japan and Turkey. Te success of the industry is intrinsically tied to the drivers and those who train them. Such
training, though, comes with a hefty price tag. It’s certainly very expensive to repeatedly provide school bus drivers with the knowledge necessary to keep kids safe in and around school buses and to ensure that training is up-to-date and the best that it can be. Still, that training works wonders. And so does school bus manufacturing, thanks in large part to the nearly three dozen Federal Mo- tor Vehicle Safety Standards that govern these vehicles, not to mention safety technology. Some 50 million students take advantage of the school bus each day, round trip, during school
commute times. Tat equates to 9 billion rides over an average 180-day school year. And realize that neither accounts for field and activity trips nor rides to and from Head Start and child care facilities, which the school transportation industry estimates is responsible for at least another 1 billion rides. It’s unfathomable that only six children died onboard school buses during the 2007- 2008 school year, according to the most recent NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System broken down by crashes involving school buses. Even with a spike in student deaths during loading and unloading at school bus stops, to 17 nationwide during the 2008-2009 school year from eight the previous school year, a fatality rate of 2 millionths of a percent per year is truly remarkable.
❝ Te success of the industry is intrinsically tied to the
drivers and those who train them. Such training, though, comes with a hefty price tag. ❞
Yet, at every turn, there remain safety obstacles. Te industry does its very best to anticipate
them all, but, sadly, it will likely always be that one too many children die while on the way to or from school. Certainly there is much to the argument that likely hundreds of additional fatalities that occur each year in other passenger vehicles or when biking or walking to school could be avoided if more kids rode on school buses. But, as reality dictates, that simply is not an option, especially in today’s economic environment. What is especially troubling is the assertion that many parents blatantly keep their kids off of
school buses because they don’t have lap/shoulder belts. Te fear is that a lack of seat belts will de-program their children from wearing them in passenger cars and trucks, despite two studies by NHTSA that indicate the exact opposite. Certainly, in a perfect world, there would be adequate state or federal funding for these occupant restraint systems or, otherwise, all school districts would be able to afford them. But it remains far from a perfect world, which brings us back to training and spending dollars
in the best, most efficient way. Tat could be harder and harder to do if, for example, school bus manufacturers are sued by parents for not installing lap/shoulder belts. Te Alabama Supreme Court last month ruled a lawsuit against IC Bus can move forward in response to the 2006 Hunts- ville school bus crash. Te assertion is that 17-year-old Tanesha Hill would still be alive today if her bus had been equipped with three-point restraints. Te precedence could be disastrous. Just imagine for an instant that one of these lawsuits drives
a manufacturer into bankruptcy, or even out of business entirely, and the trickle-down effect that could cause. Ten imagine how many more children could die or be injured. No one can budget for that. ■
12 School Transportation News Magazine May 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68