Children on School Buses Most in Danger from Other Drivers
A few weeks ago on my morning commute, I passed a yellow school bus in front of the local high school that faces a very busy street. As I accelerated away from it, I realized the bus was still unloading kids. Oops. Guess I missed the "stop arm."
That type of thing happens thousands of times a day. Some of us are in such a rush to get where we're going, distracted by traffic (or whatever else), that it doesn't register in our brains that the school bus has lowered its stop arm or is flashing its yellow lights.
Many more drivers are ignorant of the law, and some just plain don't care. So while school buses are the safest form of transportation for 23 million U.S. school children, dozens of kids still get injured or killed each year in bus-related incidents. It's not crashes or lack of seat belts that kill most of them; it's passing motorists, like me. Some children are even killed by their own bus driver.
That's exactly what happened this past week, when a couple I am friendly with lost their beautiful 4-year-old granddaughter.
A school van driver, hired for that day, ran over her after she got off his bus -- and right in front of her big brother. The driver kept going and never noticed. This happened outside the U.S., where regulations are more lax, but it has also happened here, as do thousands of stop arm violations like mine.
Our nation's stop arm regulations vary from state to state; sadly, they focus more on prosecuting guilty drivers than on prevention. But it's prevention that will spare more families -- and passing motorists -- from tragedy. So today, the last day of National School Bus Safety Week, is a good time to learn how to protect kids from these dangers. Visit NHTSA's page to learn more.
- Posted by
- Joanne Helperin October 23, 2009, 1:52 PM
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- Automotive Consumer News, Car Safety, Life with Cars
Flashing yellows are just a warning. Flashing reds are what you need to stop for. If it's that easy for you to missing flashing lights on a bright yellow box, how often do you "miss" stationary signals like stop signs and red lights?
Right: Flashing yellow lights mean "prepare to stop," and red flashing lights mean "stop." The high school I mentioned is on an super-heavily trafficked divided road. I surprised myself by missing the stop arm that one time -- but that was illegal and all it takes is once. I think part of the reason was that I was following traffic -- and no one else had stopped, either. Truth be told, I didn't know the details of the rules myself until I read up on them... the last time I saw them was when I was getting my learner's permit, almost 30 years ago.