According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), students are 70 times more likely to get to school safely on a bus – and back home – than traveling by car. While school buses are strongly regulated and protected by traffic laws, it’s people like you and I that make the real difference, taking our school bus safety to the next level.
Bus drivers must be alert, unimpaired, and completely focused on their task to demonstrate the safe operation of the vehicle. Beyond just driving the bus, the driver must also maintain total awareness of the young people riding and surrounding their bus. Backing up a school bus is never a routine maneuver. Even with mirrors and rear-view cameras, blind spots still exist. A school bus going safely into reverse depends on people ensuring there are no children, grownups, or other obstructions anywhere the bus is backing. If possible, drivers should be assisted by others to confirm the area behind the bus is clear and safe to back up.
Special Education students require additional attention. Safe use of the vehicle’s accessibility features is essential during pick up and at the destination. Bus operators with Special Ed students need to ensure their passengers and any of their mobility equipment are properly secured and remain so when the bus is in motion. While it’s important with any school bus being parked at the end of the day, with disabled students involved, the driver inspection of the vehicle’s interior is critical. The driver must walk the interior of their bus from front to back, to ensure no child is left behind.
Maintenance is also a vital component to school bus safety. From taking care of tires, brakes, fluids, and electrical, to effective windshield wipers, clean windows and mirrors, maintenance staff and bus drivers should regularly communicate about mechanical condition.
All of us who drive in our community have a part to play. Whether you drive into school or travel through neighborhoods around school bus stops, follow the rules of the road. It is illegal to pass a school bus, on either side of the road, while the bus is picking up or letting off passengers. Bad weather, bad traffic, distractions, and time pressures should never compromise how any driver shares the road with school buses.
Unlike any other vehicle on the road, school buses are carrying something that can never be replaced – our kids.