If you know anything about Rohrer Bus, you know that our #1 priority is School Bus Safety. We feel that not enough people know the ins and outs of School Bus Safety; schoolkids are put in dangerous situations every day, all of which can be avoided. If there’s ANYTHING you think you’re unsure about under the broad topic of School Bus Safety, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve split this comprehensive guide into five sections:
…. So if any of these topics particularly interest you, you can head straight there!
Driving while distracted is not only dangerous for the individuals doing it, but subsequently for everybody else on or near the roads. Distracted driving is a topic in and of itself, but it becomes a topic of School Bus Safety when it compromises the safety of students. Distracted driving poses a hazard to many children around the times they commute to and get out of school, which also happen to be common work commuting times. Distracted drivers run the risk of passing stopped school buses or speeding in a school zone.
By definition, distracted driving is participating in any act that prevents you from just driving, therefore prevents you from driving to the best of your ability. There are three categories of distracted driving: Manual, which makes you take your hand(s) off the steering wheel, Visual, which makes you take your eyes off the road, and Cognitive, which makes you take your mind off the act of driving.
Visual and Cognitive distractions can cause drivers to overlook or ignore signs, like the school zone sign or a school bus’s stop arm, that are intended to keep children safe. Some of these distractions include, but are not limited to:
Knowing the numerous activities that actually count as distracted driving is the first step to eliminating unsafe practices from our driving routines. Next time you get behind the wheel, take note of every time your eyes leave the road momentarily or your mind drifts off. What were you doing? Identify what activities cause you to drive distracted, and eliminate them to keep yourself and others safe!
“Passing the reds” is the act of driving past a stopped school bus that has its red lights flashing, stop arm extended, and is loading or unloading children. This is highly illegal because it endangers kids’ lives.
The legal implications of passing the reds, at least in the state of Pennsylvania, include all of the following:
In a worst-case-scenario, if you pass the reds and hit a student, you’ll have to deal with numerous other legal repercussions, as well as immense guilt and sorrow after the incident.
Over 700 drivers annually in the state of PA get convicted of passing a stopped school bus, and many more are guilty, but never get caught or charged. We often wonder why people pass stopped school buses, and there could be several reasons why. Firstly, it could be due to the driver being distracted and simply missing the signals. It could also be that the driver simply does not care, but people with that lack of compassion come few and far between. Perhaps, the most likely reason why people pass the reds is that they don’t know when to stop, or they don’t know they have to stop at all. It goes without saying that it is very important to know when to stop:
School bus safety extends way past what happens ON the bus. In fact, the majority of issues regarding school bus safety are caused by actions people, including students, parents, and drivers, take outside and around the bus.
The problems facing students include crossing the street to get to and from their bus (drivers sometimes pass stopped school buses due to distraction or negligence), getting out of sight of their driver, or being confronted by strangers at their bus stop. There are several things students can do to ensure their safety around the school bus:
There are also steps parents can take to ensure their kids’ safety around the bus and at the bus stop, including:
For both kids and parents, it is important to get to know your bus driver. They might have some safety tips or tricks that are specific to their areas or routes, such as a special hand signal to show their students when is safe to cross the road.
Student safety inside the school bus is ultimately up to how the students behave while riding the bus. There are several essential rules for kids to follow to ensure that their bus ride is as safe as it can be:
It is also crucial for students to get to know and trust their bus drivers. It’s important to recognize that school bus drivers first and foremost care about the safety and well-being of their students. A lot of bus drivers act as nurses, counselors, and friends to their kids, talking to them when they’re sad and comforting them when they get hurt.
Because of this, kids shouldn’t be afraid to come to their drivers to tell them about unsafe things happening on the bus. Students should always report if they see somebody being bullied, if they notice somebody breaking the school bus rules, or if they see anything else generally unsafe, and rest assured that their driver will take steps to resolve the issue.
We’ve already discussed almost everything that parents, kids, and drivers can do to ensure school bus safety, but perhaps the simplest safety tip we can cover is: encourage students everywhere to ride the school bus!
School buses are the safest vehicle on the road. Due to a combination of factors, children are 70x more likely to arrive to school safely when riding on the school bus rather than in a standard car. School buses are built like egg cartons- with a method called “compartmentalization.” The staggered seating and high, sturdy back supports keep kids safe by absorbing energy in the rare case of a collision. Also, because school buses can weigh over 30,000 pounds, and the average car is around 4,000 pounds, a school bus distributes crash force differently, and delivers much less force to passengers than standard vehicles.
The lack of seatbelts on buses seems to be the number one safety concern for many, but contrary to popular belief, seatbelts, on school buses at least, can pose more of a hazard than a benefit. Picture a situation where there is only one driver with a seatbelt cutter and around forty kids strapped in seatbelts; it would take much longer to evacuate a bus full of seatbelt-confined kids than kids who can freely get up and walk off. In bad situations, such as fires, quick evacuation is essential. As stated above, school buses are designed to absorb impact and distribute very little crash force to passengers, so seatbelts would not provide much help anyway in the vast majority of accidents.
In addition to the school buses themselves, their drivers play a key role in keeping children safe. School bus drivers love their kids and care about the safety of every student they transport. They are trained professionals who put a lot of effort and passion into their careers. All school bus drivers go through rigorous processes to make sure they’re able to provide the safest and most reliable transportation for children. School bus drivers, at least in the state of PA, must:
Drivers must also refresh their knowledge every 4 years with at least 10 hours of training to ensure that the students are always in good hands.
Hopefully this helped answer any of the questions you had about School Bus Safety, but if you have any more questions, feel free to drop them in the comments, reach out to us at info@rohrerbus.com, or give us a shout at (717) 957-3811!
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