Bush Crash Investigations Whether They

Bush Crash Investigations Whether they are school-age children or senior citizens, passengers riding in busses naturally assume that the driver is performing his or her duties carefully and safely, and passengers also believe that the bus would not be on the highways if it were unsafe in any way. Those assumptions turn out to be faulty on certain occasions, and buses crash, injuring and even killing innocent passengers.

The agency responsible for investigating bus crashes is the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and as part of its investigative authority, the NTSB also recommends safety measures that can help prevent tragic bus accidents. This paper delves into bus crashes, why they happen, how the investigations take place, and the future of bus safety in the United States.

School Bus Accidents & Related Injuries in the United States A book by author Kal Keller references a recent study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) (which is a component of Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio). The study asserts that the number of children that are injured in "nonfatal school bus accidents" every year in the U.S. is "…more than double the estimates suggested in former studies" (Keller, 2008, p. 136).

Moreover, Keller writes that about 23.5 million children ride in school busses for "billions of miles" every year. Given all those children riding all those many miles annually, there are bound to be accidents; and Keller's data (using statistics from the American Academy of Pediatrics) shows that from 2001 through 2003, an estimated 51,100 injuries (that required treatment) occurred to children riding in school busses (136). Breaking that information down further, Keller asserts that about 17,000 injuries to schoolchildren occur annually while riding school busses.

The greatest number of school bus-related injuries occur in September and October and most of the injuries sustained in that time period are to children aged 10 to 14 years of age (Keller, 136). Of those injuries, 42% resulted from a school bus colliding with another motor vehicle, and the most common injuries to children are "strains and sprains" (Keller, 136). Using statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the website Safeguards 4 Kids has some slightly different statistics on children and school bus accidents.

The authors suggest in the first place that it is "difficult to know how many children are actually injured in school bus accidents," but according to the NHTSA (reporting to Congress in 2002) every day of the school year there are "…over 144 school bus accidents" (which translates to 26,000 school bus accidents a year) and every year 9,500 school-age children are injured resulting from those 144 accidents a day (safeguard4kids.com). Of course when a school bus crashes into another vehicle (or vise-versa) there are potentially injuries to the passenger vehicle as well.

Hence, the data from the General Estimates System reflect that 13,000 people are injured each year resulting from school bus crashes; and of those 13,000 injuries, safeguard4kids.com reports that 46% (5,980) were occupants of the school bus. Eight percent were drivers of school buses and 38% were those riding in the other vehicles caught in the accident. How many children die in school bus accidents annually? The safeguard4kids.com report shows that about 21 school age children are killed in "school transportation-related traffic crashes" (but only 6 of those deaths occur in school buses).

What safety measures can be taken to prevent school children from being injured in school buses? The data provided from the NHTSA shows that when lap-shoulder belts are worn, injuries and fatalities are reduced by "45%" and even a "single percentage point increase in safety belt usage" in the general population (not just school buses) would save an estimated 250 lives annually.

As to school bus safety, crashes will happen, there is no way to eliminate bus crashes entirely, but as of 2010, six states (California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas) require that school buses have seat belts. And in 2009, the NHTSA upgraded its rules and requires that "small school buses have three-point belts" instead of lap belts (Frisman, 2010).

Bus Worthiness -- NTSB Report What is the point of investigating bus crashes? To pin blame on someone or some thing? That's part of it, but crash investigations are also conducted in order to help avoid future crashes, save lives and reduce the number of serious injuries. The NTSB is the agency responsible for investigating bus crashes, and though the NTSB asserts that school bus and motorcoach travel are among the safest forms of transportation, there is more that can be done to reduce injuries during crashes.

One of the more important safety studies (called Phase One) conducted by the NTSB involved 43 "serious school bus crashes" in 1987. The NTSB investigated the frontal impacts, the side impacts and the rollovers (many of which were "preceded by a collision"), and the determination after the investigations was that "…serious injuries to the school bus occupants were mainly the result of the occupants being in direct line with the crash forces" (NTSB, 1999).

Interestingly, those investigators for the NTSB looked at the possible "beneficial effects" that lap belts might have had during each crash event. The NTSB concluded that "…it was unlikely that restraints would have improved the injury outcome" (Special investigative Report, p. 2). The number of deaths that resulted from those 43 serious crashes would not have been reduced had occupants been wearing lap belts, the NTSB concluded. The NTSB's report showed that the "compartmentalization" built into school buses "worked well to protect" occupants from injuries in all kinds of crashes (p. 2).

In other words, at that time, the NTSB concluded that lap belts would not be any better in terms of protecting people in a crash than the compartmentalization that was part of the design of school buses. As regards motorcoach accidents, the NTSB estimates that more than 360 million passengers travel an estimated 28 billion passenger miles in North America every year in motorcoaches (p. 3).

Most motorcoaches have passenger seats that are high-backed with large windows for panoramic views; and because the motorcoaches have a "larger…mass" and have a "lower center of gravity than school buses," they act quite differently in crashes than school buses do. In fact, motorcoach passengers in the "direct line of impact" most often are seriously injured, which is similar to what happens in school bus accidents.

However, unlike school bus accidents, the NTSB has learned through investigations that the fatal injuries associated with motorcoaches are "…often the result of passenger ejection from the coach" (p. 3). In a "Phase Two" crash testing by the NTSB a conventional size school bus was crashed into a "rigid barrier" at 30 MPH and another "flat nose" school bus was hit in the side by a big rig (a 25,000-pound tractor semi-trailer) at a speed of 45 MPH (p. 4).

Those investigations hopefully will lead to safer travel for school buses (the details were not provided in the report). The NTSB did however produce results for six school bus accidents in 1996, 1997, and 1998. In Flagstaff, Arizona, a 72-passenger school bus rolled over after the driver lost control of the vehicle.

Five passengers were ejected (only one was seriously injured) and of those passengers that were not ejected received "moderate to serious injuries, but after the investigation of that accident, the NTBS cannot be certain that even if the passengers had been wearing lap seat belts that might have "…mitigated or prevented injuries" (p. 7).

Another school bus accident -- this one in Maryland -- occurred when a truck pulling an empty semi-trailer smashed into the front of the bus then the bus rotated in a clockwise direction and the "right-front corner of the semi-trailer swung into the rotating bus" (p. 10). The driver was wearing a lap seat belt and he was killed.

Would passenger restraints have prevented injuries to the 25 passengers that were hurt? The NTSB reported that "…because a properly worn lap belt limits the motion of the pelvis relative to the upper body," those passengers.