The horrific and deadly crash between a FedEx truck and a chartered bus carrying students in California last week has brought increased scrutiny to school transportation. Our Houston school bus accident attorneys note that the high school students and their chaperones were on a trip to a university to explore options for the students’ futures. It is deeply saddening that on a trip intended to prepare them for a better and brighter future, these individuals’ futures came to an abrupt halt.
Negligence on the part of drivers, vehicle maintenance personnel, and vehicle manufacturers who fail to equip vehicles with appropriate safety measures could all be at fault. And we should not forget the role of federal authorities that have long neglected to prioritize passenger bus safety, particularly in relation to the deadly fires that can erupt in a crash.
On the whole though, such horrific school trip accidents are rare. In terms of statistics, school buses provide the safest mode of ground transportation you can find. In contrast to the tragic California crash, most who die in school transport related accidents are pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles, not the occupants of the school vehicle.
And in the case of the California crash, the precise circumstances and causes of the collision are still in dispute. Early reports indicated that the FedEx truck swerved to avoid a sedan traveling in the same direction as the truck. The sharp evasive maneuver apparently sent the truck careening over the median to crash into the chartered motorcoach bus.
But the occupants of the sedan that might have cut off the truck were later reported as saying that they had been traveling in the opposite direction to the truck and that it was already on fire when it crossed the median and clipped them. The Houston school bus accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC emphasize that authorities have not yet found any evidence that the truck was on fire before the wreck. But the hulks of both the truck and the bus were practically reduced to cinders, so it might be hard to tell. Other witnesses and vehicle black boxes might be able to shed some light on the dispute.
Each year, approximately 6 school-age (1 through 18 years old) occupants of school transportation vehicles and 14 child pedestrians die as a result of school vehicle related wrecks. A school vehicle is a school bus or another type of vehicle functioning as a school bus (for instance, a large passenger van or a motorcoach bus).
A report issued by the NHTSA is 2009 listed 371,104 fatal motor vehicle crashes, an average of more than 37,000 per year (NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts, School Transportation-Related Crashes, 2009). School transportation related wrecks accounted for 1,245 of those deadly wrecks. Our Houston school bus accident attorneys report that 1,386 people died in those 1,245 tragic crashes, an average of 139 per year.
Only about 8% of the victims were actually inside the school vehicles though. About 20% were pedestrians. And about 71% were in the other vehicles involved in the collisions.
From 2000 to 2009, 85 crashes occurred where at least one occupant of a school transportation vehicle, a driver or a passenger, died. Almost 60% of the fatal accidents involved another vehicle. In 51% of those fatal crashes, our Houston school bus accident attorneys point out that the school vehicle was struck in the front, like the chartered bus in Orland, California.
73% of the school-age pedestrians killed in school-transportation related wrecks were killed by the school vehicle. Only 27% died from being hit by the other vehicle involved in the school transport related crash. About 43% of the children fatally injured were between 5 and 7 years old.
A major crash like the one last week in Orland, California can strongly affect the “averages” in government traffic data. On a more positive note, the Houston school bus accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC mention that the notable absence of advanced fire safety evacuation measures in the chartered bus and the deadly toll their absence took could prompt federal officials and safety agencies to finally promulgate much needed additional fire safety measures in buses that carry school children and people of all ages.
That bus travel usually conveys only the elderly, people of lower income, and students has meant that federal regulators focus more strongly on the safety concerns of more well-off people in the voting and working age ranges that can make their strident voices heard in the halls where policy is made. Click the link to learn about some of the safety gaps in bus transportation that have been recognized for years or even decades, but still have not been properly remedied.