The Importance of School Bus Safety

Every year in October, schools all across the country takes part in National School Bus Safety Week. The theme for this year’s campaign is “My School Bus, The Safest Form of Student Transportation.” This year’s campaign is sponsored by the National Association for Pupil Transportation and is focused on raising awareness for the safety of student travel.

Statistically, transportation by a school bus is one of the safest ways for students to get to school. According to the American School Bus Council, students are safer riding to school on a bus than riding with an adult driver. Studies show that less than 1% of youth fatalities involve bus accidents during school travel hours.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that there were a total of 1,282 people killed in accidents involving school-transportation vehicles — that’s 128 a year- between 2007 and 2016. Of those 1,282 people, 281 of them were school-aged children, with 58 of them being occupants of school transportation vehicles when the accidents occurred. The remaining children were either pedestrians, passengers of other vehicles, or bicyclists. Over 900 of the total fatalities in these school-transportation related crashes were occupants of other vehicles.

Accidents involving school buses can be devastating. Type C “conventional” school buses can weigh almost 30,000 pounds and require as much training to operate like any other commercial vehicle. This means that driver error, distraction, intoxication, or any other type of negligence could be catastrophic consequences — not just for the driver and children on the bus, but for others nearby as well.

Call a New York School Bus Accident Lawyer

If your child was injured in a school bus accident, Finz & Finz, P.C., can help you take action against the party responsible. Determining liability for these accidents can be challenging because multiple parties could potentially be liable, including the driver, the trucking company, third party maintenance companies, the school district, and others.

Our attorneys work on a contingency-fee-basis, which means we will take your case at no upfront cost, and you won’t pay us a penny until we recover compensation for you. Call us toll-free at (855) TOP-FIRM or fill out the Free Case Evaluation form to schedule your confidential consultation with us today.