Accident Occurrence of School Buses

DEKRA Automobil GmbH
Accident Research
Accident Occurrence
of School Buses
Results of a Pilot Study
Walter Niewöhner
F. Alexander Berg
Tobias Mann
Markus Egelhaaf
DEKRA Automobil GmbH
Stuttgart, Germany
September 2002
33rd MEETING OF BUS AND COACH EXPERTS
International Conference on Vehicle safety and Reliability
Keszthely, Hungary, September 2 – 4, 2002
1 Introduction
Buses are one of the safest means of transport. As by comparison across Europe by the European
Transport Safety Council (ETSC), the risk factor in travelling by bus of 0.08 fatalities per 100 million
kilometres ridden is at the same level as that of public air transport - Chart 1, /1/. A similar figure can
also be expected for school buses.
Motorcycle/moped
16,0
Ferry
0,33
Pedestrian
7,5
Public air transport
0,08
Bicycle
6,3
Bus
0,08
Road traffic (average)
1,1
Railway
0,04
Passenger car
0,8
Chart 1: Fatalities per 100 million kilometres for various means of transport including pedestrians /1/
The literature to date includes only a small number of sources which deal explicitly with the issue of
accidents involving school buses. As also observed in the case of serious accidents involving longdistance coaches, accidents involving school buses attract a large amount of public attention. Not only
those directly affected - the children - but most especially the parents and teachers have a major
interest in information concerning the safety of school buses. However, their attitudes may also be
clouded by emotional fears which frequently lead to excessive demands being made. As a general
principle, schools and other state institutions have an obligation to provide protection to the most
vulnerable members of society. Furthermore, many children gather their first experience of
independent use of public transport in the school bus. For reasons of safety and environmental protection among others, it is in the general interest that that experience should be as positive as possible.
This paper is the result of a pilot project run by DEKRA Accident Research. It is intended to help analyse and present the risks of school bus transportation in an objective manner. Differing definitions and
statistics are set out, data material is analysed and interpreted. This results in a presentation of the
"status quo" relating to the school bus as an accompaniment to the ongoing debate. Costly quick-fix
solutions with little or no effect, based on emotional argumentation, are not helpful in achieving the
desired objectives. Finally, proposals for the improvement of safety in school bus transportation are
listed and a positive example of its organisation is detailed.
Supplementary to the reports and figures from the literature and from published statistics, 41 school
bus accidents from the cases collated by DEKRA Accident Research were analysed in detail. In this
way, common features, differences and other aspects of note in relation to school bus accidents as
compared to other bus accidents can be presented, as can relevant accident scenarios.
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