Newly released federal data shows that, on average, 33 school-age children are killed in school transportation-related crashes each year.
That statistic comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s new edition of School Transportation-Related Crashes, published last month.
The recent report also finds that about only 17% of the children killed in these accidents are occupants of school transportation vehicles, while almost half (45%) of the fatalities are occupants of other vehicles involved in the crashes.
According to the NHTSA’s definition, a school transportation-related crash is one that involves, either directly or indirectly, a school bus body vehicle or a non-school bus functioning as a school bus, transporting children to or from school-related activities.
The recent report shows that from 2004 to 2013, 327 school-age children died in school transportation-related crashes. Of those, 54 children were occupants of school transportation vehicles, 147 were occupants of other vehicles, 116 were pedestrians, nine were cyclists, and one was categorized as “other nonoccupant.”
The NHTSA report also contextualizes the data from school transportation-related crashes within overall vehicle crashes. From 2004 to 2013, there were 340,039 recorded fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those, only 1,214 (0.36%) were found to be related to school transportation.
For the full report from NHTSA, click here.
