Good news for many school bus transport companies coming out of Washington, America is that the greatest risk in school travel is not actually on school buses. Here at School Travel Manager we have been working tirelessly with schools and transport companies to develop our software so it is most effective towards the safety of students.
While this new study has brought fresh information to the fore on the risks and dangers of transporting schoolchildren, it is still important to try and improve all aspects of safety when it comes to the transportation of our children and how they get to school.
Private Transport Risk
According to the recent report from Washington, children are at far more risk traveling to and from school in private vehicles. This is especially so if the driver is a teen student.
The report comes from the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board, which also highlights walking to school and cycling as statistical worse methods of transportation. This national information was made public to schools and parents to make local level decisions regarding the children’s safety.
Each state, school district, and private school must asses its own situation and circumstances, was the message delivered by the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina.
The Statistics
The shocking data that was released stated that in America roughly 800 children of school age are killed every year in motor vehicle accidents during school hours. This accounts for a massive twenty percent of all child deaths every year.
Of these figures only about two percent are connected to school buses, where a massive seventy-four percent happened in private vehicles. Furthermore, twenty-two percent are related to cycles and pedestrians.
More than fifty percent of all the deaths of children between the ages of five and eighteen happen during normal school travel hours and when a teenager is driving the vehicle.
The Obvious Conclusion
When it is a school bus involved in an accident then the obvious conclusion is the link that the bus has with children. This assumption is not made when children are killed in private vehicles.
Congress has asked the National Research Council to study every aspect concerning safety and modes of transportation of schoolchildren. This will then provide the data to make more accurate comparisons.
The report looked at six different transportation methods. Buses (including school buses), passenger vehicles (and those driven by teenagers), pedestrians and cyclists.
The differences in safety between each more of transportation suggest than there can be far more done to improve safety and reduce the risks. But it came to the conclusion that overall children were safer traveling to school on the school bus than any other method of transportation.
If you would like to know more about School Travel Manager contact us today for more details on what we can do for your children.