School Buses

Traffic Safety Facts 1996

U.S. Department of Transportation
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Since 1986 there have been about 424,000 fatal traffic crashes. Just over 0.3 percent (1,305) were classified as school bus-related.

Since 1986, 1,458 people have died in school bus-related crashes -- an average of 133 fatalities per year. Most of the people who lost their lives in those crashes (61 percent) were occupants of other vehicles involved. Nonoccupants (pedestrians, bicyclists, etc.) accounted for 29 percent of the deaths, and school bus occupants accounted for 10 percent (drivers 2 percent, passengers 8 percent).

Since 1986, 283 school-age pedestrians (less than 19 years old) have died in school bus-related crashes. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) were killed by school buses, 5 percent by vehicles functioning as school buses, and 33 percent by other vehicles involved in the crashes. Half of all school-age pedestrians killed in school bus-related crashes were between the ages of 5 and 7.

On average, 17 school-age pedestrians are killed by school buses (or vehicles used as school buses) each year, and 8 are killed by other vehicles involved in school bus-related crashes.

More school-age pedestrians are killed in the afternoon than in the morning, with 42 percent of the fatalities occurring in crashes between 3:00 and 4:00 PM.

Between 1986 and 1996, 95 crashes occurred in which at least one occupant of a school bus or a vehicle functioning as a school bus died. Half of those crashes (49 percent) involved another vehicle. In the 48 single-vehicle crashes, 60 occupants -- 13 drivers and 47 passengers -- were killed. In the 47 multiple-vehicle crashes, 15 drivers and 67 passengers died. In the 48 single-vehicle crashes, the first harmful events were as follows: striking a fixed object (28 crashes), the vehicle overturning (6 crashes), a person falling from the vehicle (10 crashes), the vehicle colliding with a train (2 crashes), collision with object not fixed (1 crash), and other noncollision (1 crash).

In 40 percent of all crashes involving fatalities to occupants of a school bus or vehicle used as a school bus, the principal point of impact was the front of the vehicle.

Since 1986, 7 drivers and 48 passengers have died in school buses providing transportation for purposes other than school or school-related activities (churches, civic organizations, etc.). In one such multi-vehicle crash, 27 occupants, including the driver, died.