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While a school bus is a safer ride for a child than the family van or riding their bike, school buses can still be dangerous. Today there are so many more distracted drivers on the road and children darting out from and around buses during the boarding process.

We believe that school bus safety is a group effort and that the time to make the roads safer for school buses and keep our children out of harm’s way is now. Today, we’re going to go over some ways everyone can pitch in a little to help save lives on school buses every single day.

Go Over School Bus Safety Tips

When we think about the dangers of school buses, we often think about car and bus accidents, but the truth is that a child is most often hurt in the “danger zone” around the bus when the bus is no longer moving, or while they’re running to catch up to the bus. That being said, it is extremely important to go over school bus safety tips with your kids, students, or whoever will be riding the bus.  

Here are some helpful tips:

• Walk, don’t run to your bus stop.
• Get to your bus stop five minutes early. And never chase or approach the bus while it’s moving.
• Don’t play at the bus stop. Pay attention to your surroundings. Listening to music or playing video games can distract you from watching for traffic.
• Stay out of the street while waiting for the bus.
• Stay at least 10 giant steps from a moving school bus, so the bus driver can see you.

Now here are some safety tips for parents to review:

• Always drop off and pick up your child at the bus stop, not across the street. Children can get excited to see you and dart across the road without looking.
• Be sure someone responsible walks with your child and waits with them at the bus stop. It’s not safe for a child to wait alone for the bus, and it’s easier for drivers to see more than one person.
• Make sure your child leaves for the bus stop at a reasonable time to avoid rushing or running.

School Bus Technology

School bus manufacturers like Thomas Built Buses are making buses safer through state of the art technologies and innovations.  Here are a few of the different technologies today’s buses are equipped with; electronic stability control, video cameras on both the inside and outside of the bus, collision mitigation systems, stop arm cameras, student and vehicle tracking technology, and lane departure warnings. Innovations like these are why riding the school bus is 13 times safer than riding in the car.