Pupil Fatalities on Public Transit Buses: A Comparison with School Buses

Fatality rates of school-age children on trips to/from school by transit buses (while passengers or pedestrians approaching or leaving the bus) were estimated from existing data and compared with school-bus-related fatality rat es. Data from FARS 1996-1998 were used to identify deaths of school-age bus passengers and pedestrians in all crashes during times that children normally travel to/from school. Police crash reports were obtained for the pedestrian deaths an d reviewed for bus involvement and identification of the trip as one to/from schoo l. The average number of pupils killed on such trips on transit buses in the United States was 0.3 deaths per year, and possibly as high as 1.7 deaths per year. Using NPTS data to control for exposure, a fatality rate of four deaths per billio n pupil trips (95% confidence interval of 1-11) was estimated. Within the precisio n achievable with available data, no recognizable difference between pupil fatali ty rates by transit buses and school buses was found