School Bus Safety Fact Sheet

Every year, approximately 440,000 public school buses travel more than 4 billion miles and daily transport 24 million children to and from schools and school-related activities. School buses account for an estimated 10 billion student trips each year.

By all measures, school buses are the safest motor vehicles on the highways.

When comparing the number of fatalities of children ages 5 through 18 during "normal school transportation hours," in the 1988 through 1998 school years, school buses are 70 times safer than passenger cars, light trucks, and vans. 1

From 1988 to 1998 , an average of 10 passengers were killed each year in school bus crashes.

Most of the school bus fatalities were in non-survivable situations (the fatality occurred at the point of maximum damage to the school bus.)

From 1988 to 1998, an average of 31 pedestrians were killed each year while getting on or off school buses, 23 of which were children struck by the school bus. The other 8 pedestrians were struck by another vehicle.

Half of the pedestrian fatalities in school bus-related crashes were children between 5 and 7 years old. 2

Most student pedestrian fatalities in school bus-related crashes occur when coming home from school during daylight hours. 2

School buses manufactured after January 1, 1977 must meet a series of strict Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards which have proven to greatly enhance the safety of school buses.

School buses are required to meet more Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards than any other type of motor vehicle.

1 For this analysis of data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, "normal school transportation hours" were defined as: Monday through Friday; 6:00 a.m. to 8:59 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 4:59 p.m.; September 1 through June 15 each school year.

2 Under federal definitions, any injury or fatality that occurs within the vicinity of a school bus is considered a "school bus-related crash," even in situations where the school bus had nothing to do with the injury or fatality.

Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration