Safety Statistics

School Bus drivers are required to meet higher qualifications, training, and testing standards than any other drivers on the road.

School buses are required to meet higher construction, equipment, and inspection standards than any other vehicle on the road.

Federal regulations do not prohibit the use of vans by schools, but require any van (with a capacity of more than 10 passengers) sold or leased for use as a school bus to meet the safety standards applicable to school buses.

School buses keep an annual estimated 17.3 million cars off roads surrounding schools each day. The federal government considers school buses to be about 9 times safer than other passenger vehicles during the normal school commute.

According to the National Safety Council, the national school average accident rate for the school bus industry is 0.01 per 100 million miles traveled, compared to 0.04 for trains, 0.06 for commercial aviation and 0.96 for other passenger vehicles.

According to the Transportation Research Board, school buses represent 25% of all the miles traveled by students but account for less than 4% of the injuries.

According to a Department of Transportation study, the safety record for school bus transportation exceeds that of all other modes of travel.