Public outcry and demands for change predictably surface when tragic crashes occur, even though the frequency of on-board deaths and injuries on school buses remains lower than that of incidents outside of the buses. Expectations for school bus safety should be upheld not as a result of public reactions, but from an ongoing commitment from communities and states to assuring the safest ride possible for children on school buses. Because travel by school bus plays such a consistent and long-term role in the daily lives of children from preschool through high school, pediatricians can help by serving as resources, educators, consultants, and advocates for school bus safety. In recent years, school bus safety in the United States again has been closely scrutinized. Although certain topics continue to be controversial, there is a strong consensus regarding most issues.
Many school systems provide for the transportation of preschool children.
The use of child safety seats and other restraint systems on school buses for preschool children is recommended as a necessary practice to keep preschool children secured on the school bus seats. All restraint systems used during school bus transport should meet the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213. Children with special needs and who are older than that age and require restraint should be evaluated individually to determine the most appropriate restraint that meets their needs for positioning during travel, regardless of their age, weight, and height. Compartmentalization , or keeping child passengers confined to a padded compartment in a crash, is the major principle by which school bus passengers are currently protected. In general, the higher the seat back and the closer the spacing between rows, the better the compartmentalization of passengers in a crash.