How Safe Is the School Bus? When you get in your car, you buckle
up for safety, and if you're a parent, you make sure your
children are buckled up, as well. But if you're a parent, do you
wonder about your children as they board the big yellow school
bus in the morning? How safe are they aboard that big bus,
particularly if the bus—like most—has no seat belts for its
passengers? During the school year, 23.5 million elementary and
secondary school children ride a bus to and from school each
day, according to School Transportation News. Add in
extracurricular activities, and the school bus system becomes
the single largest public transit system in our country. Like
any form of vehicular transportation, accidents involving school
buses are inevitable. Each year, about 17,000 children are
treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with
school buses. Children can be injured when riding the bus,
getting on or off the bus, or standing near the bus. More than
40 percent of school bus injuries are cau