FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 07, 2000
Media Contact: Dr. Arthur Yeager at: Alyeager@aol.com
Can be reprinted with permission

A poor grade for "The Report Card"

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Dr. Arthur Yeager has been active in automotive and school bus safety for the past 30 years. Dr. Yeager questions Dr. Cal LeMon's "2000 Report Card on School Bus Safety in the U.S."

A poor grade for "The Report Card", by Dr. Arthur Yeager, published January 07, 2001, Copyright ©2000, 2001 by Dr. Arthur Yeager, All Rights Reserved. Can be reprinted with permission from Dr. Yeager

Parents should not be misled by Dr. Cal LeMon's questionable assertion that the single greatest risk to children is not taking the school bus. "In fact, it's 87 times safer for your child to take the school bus than driving them yourself, letting them ride with friends, or even walking and bicycling," says LeMon. He alleges that 600 children are killed every year going to and from school in some other vehicle than a school bus. Unfortunately, the facts, as detailed in his 2000 Report Card on School Bus Safety in the U.S., are not supportive.

To determine the relative safety of school buses, LeMon based his calculations on available data indicating the number of school age children killed in passenger cars from 6:00 to 9:00 AM and 2:00 to 5:00 PM, Mondays to Fridays between September 1 and June 15 as furnished by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). At the same time he indicates that in contrast to the total of 600, only 10 were killed on school buses.

LeMon's current calculations, now apparently down from 87 to just 60 times safer, are grossly flawed.

"Annually, more children are run over and killed by their own school bus than from accidental deaths on the school bus. These children would be alive today if they had NOT taken the school bus." - Arthur Yeager

In order to ride a school bus back and forth to school, children must get on and off the bus. NHTSA reports that the overwhelming majority of child fatalities, 78%, occur during loading and unloading the school bus. Annually, more children are run over and killed by their own school bus than from accidental deaths on the school bus. These children would be alive today if they had NOT taken the school bus.

Since youngsters cannot ride without getting on and off, parents should be aware that it is at the school bus stop the primary danger lies. They should also know that in failing to factor in these fatalities, LeMon has made a four fold error in overstating the safety of school bussing.

Further, during the time period from September 1 to June 15 in which he claims that 600 children were killed on their way to school in passenger cars, LeMon failed to allow for school days off, holidays and vacations. As a result, non-bus fatalities were evaluated over a 205 day period and compared to school bus operations of just 180 days, a 25 day (5 school week) and an additional 13% miscalculation.

Last year when LeMon produced a similar report, I checked his New Jersey profile. During 1997 according to LeMon there were 12 fatalities that were supposed to meet his criteria. In checking the dates I found that two were on Saturdays, one on Memorial Day and another during Christmas vacation. After thus eliminating one-third of his data, and without actual accident reports, I was unable to determine whether the children were on their way to school, on the way home or not going to or from school at all. However, I did find out that of the remaining eight, with the exception of just one 6 year old passenger, all were older. Four drivers were 17, one passenger was 18, another 17 and a third was 16.

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This should come as no surprise. Teenage drivers have three times the fatality rate of their parents. And most parents are well aware of the danger of the young, inexperienced driver and these parents have made reasoned choices as to whether to permit their high school children to drive or to be passengers on the trips back and forth to school.

Parent's true concerns with school bus safety should focus on the bus loading area because it is there that most fatalities occur. And it is the younger children who are most likely to be killed. National figures indicate that 2/3 of these children are 5, 6 and 7 years old and as indicated above, most often by killed by their own school bus.

Parents should insist that their kids are properly instructed in loading and unloading procedures, that these techniques are reinforced at school, on the bus and at home. Bus routes must be devised to pick up and discharge children on the side of the street they live on to eliminate crossing in front of or behind the bus.

Cal LeMon's urging to get "...more children to ride school buses-that's where the big safety payoff is" should therefore be viewed with extreme caution. Parents must understand that school buses are nowhere near as safe as LeMon contends. He compares the record of school buses to that of teenage drivers, ignores fatalities getting on and off the bus and over-represents the non-bus deaths.

No effort was made to determine if the non-bus fatalities actually occurred when going back and forth to school, or whether children are more or less safe when their own parents drive.

This selective segregation of safety factors, the consideration of only those aspects of pupil transportation which enhance the industry's record, and apparent exclusion of negative data, has been the classic strategy of school bus officials. In some jurisdictions, in the recent past, school bus deaths and injuries were only reported for public school children and only when they were being transported back and forth to school. When public school children were hurt on field trips, their injuries were not reported in the school bus statistics. Those being taken to private and parochial schools were not counted at all. Even today, when a yellow school bus, owned and operated by a school bus contractor is used to take children on a school bus to a non school activity such as back and forth to summer camp or on a church, boy or girl scout or club activity, injuries and fatalities are not counted. The result is a gross overstatement as to the safety of these vehicles and the competence of those who transport our children.

Parents should not be lulled into complacency regarding the safety of their children on school buses. In addition to the inadequacies during loading and discharge of passengers, most school buses are not equipped with seat belts; with capacities of up to 90 children, emergency exits are insufficient; few have two way communication or escape hatches in the roof. Contrary to LeMon's assertions, a great deal remains to be accomplished to ensure a safe trip back and forth to school.

About Dr. Arthur Yeager
Dr. Arthur Yeager, a New Jersey Dentist, has been active in automotive and school bus safety for the past 30 years. He lists as accomplishments, the enactment of two, first in the nation laws, one to require the installation and use of seat belts on school buses and another measure to require use of bicycle helmets by children. In addition he has been instrumental in passing legislation raising the drinking age to 21, requiring school buses to have high back padded seats, roof hatches and crossing gates, child restraint laws, moped helmet use and providing for ice cream truck stop signs.

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DEATH AT THE SCHOOL BUS STOP - what happens, how it happens and how to prevent it. 2safeschools Press Release. Free Danger Zone Flyer - Free browser printable flyer, "Danger at the school bus stop," covering bus stop safety. Recommend minimum 300 dpi, may have to scale down printer output on some printers. The summary videos here were inspired by the parents of 7-year-old, Tara Bates. Tara died after being run over by a school bus outside her elementary school in Lakeville, Minnesota. (See IN LOVING MEMORY below): Video - A summary of the rules of riding the school bus and: Video - Three school bus safety rules explained In Loving Memory - Memorial sites of school and school bus victims. Michael's Death - A mom writes about the day a school bus accident changed her life forever. Jimmy's Story - Don't leave the choice of whether your children live or die in the hands of a sexual predator! Video - School bus environment out-of-control Notice how even with an adult monitor on this Florida school bus, and only a few kids on board, bus student behavior remains out-of-control and escalating. Central Florida TV 13 News. (RealPlayer) A Mother's Story - What this mom did when the school and therapy failed her out-of-control son. Excellent reading for Parents and School Staff dealing with an out-of-control teen and nothing else has worked.

(Death at the school bus stop -, Rev. 01-08-01)

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