School Buses

Traffic Safety Facts 1997

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

Since 1987 there have been about 420,000 fatal traffic crashes. Just over 0.3 percent (1,298) were classified as school bus-related.

Since 1987, 1,458 people have died in school bus-related crashes -- an average of 132 fatalities per year. Most of the people who lost their lives in those crashes (63 percent) were occupants of other vehicles involved. Nonoccupants (pedestrians, bicyclists, etc.) accounted for 27 percent of the deaths, and school bus occupants accounted for 10 percent (drivers 2 percent, passengers 8 percent).

Since 1987, 257 school-age pedestrians (less than 19 years old) have died in school bus-related crashes. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) were killed by school buses, 5 percent by vehicles functioning as school buses, and 32 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, 16 school-age pedestrians are killed by school buses (or vehicles used as school buses) each year, and 7 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 43 percent of the fatalities occurring in crashes between 3:00 and 4:00 PM.

Between 1987 and 1997, 100 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 (52 percent) involved another vehicle. In the 48 single-vehicle crashes, 60 occupants -- 13 drivers and 47 passengers -- were killed. In the 52 multiple-vehicle crashes, 18 drivers and 72 passengers died. In the 48 single-vehicle crashes, the first harmful events were as follows: striking a fixed object (28 crashes), a person falling from the vehicle (10 crashes), the vehicle overturning (6 crashes), the vehicle colliding with a train (2 crashes), and collision with object not fixed (1 crash).

In 42 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 1987, 7 drivers and 47 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.