Getting to School Safely
School has
just recently started again for the majority of the country, and with that in
mind, I thought it would be a good idea to write an article about getting to
school safely. This article is primarily going to focus on students who ride
the bus to school. There will be another article for high school students who
drive themselves soon.
So how do we
get these legions of students from their front doors to their classrooms
safely? Well first, we need to break this subject into three parts: bus
loading, the bus ride itself, and bus unloading. As you might expect, we’ll begin
with the beginning…
Bus loading
This refers
to that period of time when kids wait for their buses and when they get on the
bus. Normally, this goes off without a hitch, and as a result, little thought
is paid to this time. But we need to change that because it is this time and
the unloading, which will be mentioned later, that are the most dangerous time
for students. A recent NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
study on school transportation accidents revealed that between 2003 and 2012,
there were 174 student fatalities during transportation to and from school. Of
those student fatalities, 119 were students who weren’t on the bus when the
accident happened, making this time period the most important to focus on. Those 119 were likely either hit by the bus
they were either waiting for or had just exited, or were hit by other cars as
they got off the bus to get home. So here are some tips to help keep kids safe
while they are waiting for the bus:
1. Make sure the student has a safe area
to wait in. This
area should be no closer to the bus than the sidewalk. The best waiting place
for the student would be inside of his or her house, watching for the bus from
a window inside the house, then not leaving for the bus until the parent or guardian
sees it pull up. This way there is less chance a student runs out
in front of the bus or
gets distracted and walks away while waiting for the bus.
2. A parent or guardian should escort
the student to the bus, always holding the child’s hand and watching for speeding cars or a bus
operator who isn’t on the ball that day. I see a lot of parents who just let
their kids run out to the bus when they see it pull up. While accidents rarely
happen, all it takes is for the bus driver to have his or her foot slip off of
the brake, or have the kid run after a ball or something else that has gotten
into traffic for a bad situation to occur.
3. The student should not enter the bus
until the parent or guardian has determined the bus has stopped fully, and the
bus is ready to be loaded. Some things a parent or guardian should look for is a bus that has not
been moving for at least a few seconds, and a bus that has the Stop Sign
extended, which indicates the driver is ready to load. Lastly of course, is an
open bus door and a driver who indicates he or she is ready to load by vocal or
hand gestures.
4. The parent should stay at the bus
loading area until they can see the child is safely on the bus and has sat down
in their seat. My
suggestion would be to watch the bus pull away as well, that way you can judge
if there are any issues with the bus or bus driver that might need to be
addressed. You will rarely, if ever see anything, but I think this is a smart
move especially if your kids are younger.
It is really
important that a parent or guardian keep in mind just how big a bus is, and how
large the potential for blind spots are. True, buses have mirrors upon mirrors,
but just like you do when you pull out, how much do you actually study your
mirrors? If you are like most drivers, you give the mirror a cursory glance,
and the pull out. Bus drivers are people to, and it is very possible that one
will just give his or her mirror a quick glance because they are running late
and then pull out when they don’t see anything. That quick glance could hide a
child who is tying their shoe or who is trying to get a ball from under the bus
or any other number of things that happen with kids. So bottom line, kids need
to be watched at all times around a bus, and this is even more important when
the kids are elementary school age.
The Bus Ride
While on the
bus, it’s important that students know to stay in their seats for the duration
of the bus ride. This information should come from the bus driver, and then the
parent or guardian of the student should also echo it, so that the message
sinks through to the child. They should not be standing up, walking the aisles,
or engaging in any sort of horseplay. This is for a few reasons. One, it makes
the likelihood of them being injured in a wreck that much higher because school
buses do not have seatbelts, and they use the idea of compartmentalization, the
idea that the kids are squeezed into overstuffed seats which act like airbags
to arrest any movement if they get into a crash. But this compartmentalization
doesn’t work if the student is not in his or her seat. Another reason to have
the student always sitting or not messing around is that if a student is up and
messing around, the driver must take focus off of the road and put it on the
student as they look in the mirror and ask the student to sit down. This having
to focus on student management on the bus takes the driver’s eyes off of the
road, which even if it is just for a few seconds, could be enough to miss
someone pulling out in front of the bus or could be enough for the bus to drift
off of the road. If all students are in their seats and not messing around, the
driver can put all of his or her focus where it needs to be: the road.
Some ways
that a student could be encouraged to stay in their seat is first consider
getting the student a smartphone. If a child’s nose is buried in their phone,
they aren’t getting up or messing around. Music, with earbuds (avoid the big
over the ear earphones as they are bulky and more likely to be broken around
young kids) can allow a student to retreat from the world into his or her
favorite song. It can decompress the student at the end of the day, and if the
student is focused on music, they will be sitting in their seat, usually not
bothering anyone because they are so into the song. If the student is a reader,
a favorite book (or audiobook) can keep them occupied.
Bus Unloading
This time is
just as hazardous as the bus loading, because this is when students are off of
the bus, and have the greatest statistical chance of being injured by a bus.
Here are some suggested steps to keep kids safe when getting off of the bus.
1. Students should have all of their
stuff ready to go when the bus pulls up to the school. This is so they can get out and are not
distracted by wondering if they lost this or that, or if they left this or that
on the bus. My suggestion is to not have the student open their bag at all.
Today, the most a student will need on a bus is their phone, and maybe some
water or a snack. Most of that can fit into their hands, leaving the backpack
to be kept zipped up. The reason I touch on this first is that if a kid is
distracted, wondering if they forgot or left something on the bus, how focused
are they going to be when they get off of the bus? Usually not very focused. If
they have all their stuff still packed up like it was when they got on the bus,
this won’t be a worry.
2. Kids should leave the bus in as
orderly a fashion as possible. I know this is not something that is really in the student’s
hands, as the bus driver controls how they enter and exit, but the student
should leave in a calm, orderly way, being very careful to use the handrails
and not trip while getting off the bus. You might think that last sentence is
like reminding someone that gasoline can start a fire, but I have seen lots of
adults when I was a college student riding the bus trip getting on or off
(including myself at least once!), so it bears repeating. When going down the
stairs to exit the bus, students should go one step at a time, use the
handrail, and get off as orderly as possible.
3. Once off the bus, students should move
away from it immediately. Students should not hang around the bus to talk to friends. Students
should not hang around the bus to check messages on their phone. Students
should step off the bus, get on the sidewalk, go maybe a hundred feet, find a
place where they won’t get bumped into, and then wait for friends or check
messages. Remember, most student fatalities regarding buses occurred because someone
got hit by the bus or another car. If a student is at least one hundred feet
away from the bus, it won’t be able to hit or hurt anyone.
Even though the majority of school
buses don’t come with seat belts, they are still statistically the safest form
of automobile out there, so your student is very safe while on that bus. But
there is still danger there, and that danger is primarily from the bus itself
when the student is around the bus. Stay safe and best wishes for a great
school year. Until next time…
