Unlike in other parts of the world such as the US, school buses in Australia are not always purpose-built vehicles specifically engineered with the school run in mind. For some parents, this may raise concerns about safety.
Seatbelts are often one worry that parents may have about how safely their children are travelling to and from school. This is something that has been raised repeatedly by various campaigns, especially since seatbelts have been mandatory in cars for around forty years.
While it is not mandatory nationally to equip all school buses with seatbelts, many regions do now include them as standard on these routes.
So why is there no rule on seatbelts in school buses? In 2016 ABC Radio Canberra interviewed Ian Faulks, a research scholar on road safety, who explained that there is not much risk of fatalities on school buses with the exception of more severe accidents. While injuries did occur when there was a bus crash, they were typically minor compared to those that may occur in a comparable crash in a car.
Obviously there are several factors that contribute to whether each individual bus journey is as safe as it can be. For example, the training and experience of the driver of the bus as well as how well-maintained the vehicle itself is will have a huge impact on whether the school bus is safe to travel in.
According to a report by the Bus Industry Confederation, between 1989 and 2010 less that one percent of all road fatalities amongst school-aged children were school bus passengers, with only 38 fatalities occurring within a school bus.
This demonstrates that school buses themselves are extremely safe vehicles, but it is still important to ensure that children are aware of how to stay safe when travelling to and from school.
Teaching children how important it is to follow simple safety procedures can have a large impact on their safety. Ensuring that they wait until the bus has left before leaving the footpath and look both ways for traffic before crossing the road is a simple way to make an accident less likely.
Of course it is also important that other drivers respect the rules and laws of the road to prevent accidents, especially reduced speed limits in school zones and being extremely conscious of pedestrians, including parents and children when driving.
School bus travel can be a safe and fun way for children to get to and from school as long as they take basic safety precautions.
Hello. Ivy here. As an avid traveller, I think I have used every form of transport that exists. I have traversed this planet on everything from donkeys to B-Doubles despite protests from my worried parents! These days, friends and family often consult me about different forms of transport and I have become quite a font of knowledge. I created this blog so that others who have an interest in transport can join me in my obsession and maybe extract some useful nuggets of wisdom. Please park yourself for a little while and enjoy wandering through my posts. Thank you for driving by.