Are school buses safe to ride?

Question

I heard about a bus that was "on the brake" but almost got hit by a semi-truck.

Answer 1

If they weren't safe, the schools, cities, counties, etc. wouldn't use them.

Have you ever seen a school bus accident in person?

Answer 2

Yes..............

New national data show school bus-related accidents send 17,000 U.S. children to emergency rooms each year, more than double the number in previous estimates that only included crashes.

Nearly one-fourth of the accidents occur when children are boarding or leaving school buses, while crashes account for 42 percent, the new research shows.

Slips and falls on buses, getting jostled when buses stop or turn suddenly, and injuries from roughhousing are among other ways kids get hurt on school buses, the data found.

Injuries range from cuts and sprains to broken bones, but most are not life-threatening and don’t require hospitalization.

And while the numbers are higher than previously reported, they represent a small fraction of the 23.5 million children who travel on school buses nationwide each year.......

Answer 3

A lot of kids dont wear the seatbelts, and it also depends on the bus driver.  Overall, it does the job though.

Answer 4

No vehicle is really safe, I think especially school buses aren't. They don't have seat belts, so if you got hit, and started rolling probably wouldn't go so well. On the other hand there was a bus accident last year, and most people walked away without scratches surprisingly.

Answer 5

Yes.  That's why when something does happen to a school bus it gets nation wide attention, because it's rare.

Answer 6

Usually they are rather safe.

Answer 7

yep

Answer 8

Yes school buses are safe to ride otherwise they would not use them.

Answer 9

Depends on who is driving. . .

I trust them.

Answer 10

No

Answer 11

Statistically, school buses are one of the safest modes of transit.  In the US, they come either first or 2nd, with air travel being the other one.  Even though they share the roads with cars which have something like 50 or 60 times the death rate (yeah, it's that low for school buses), they have so many laws in their favor, they have so many warning and visibility devices, and they're so big, that EVEN WITHOUT SEAT BELTS they are the safest vehicles on the roads.  

Accidents still happen, and when they do, they can be bad, but you have to remember, there are a LOT of school buses on the roads.

AFAIK, the only thing in the world that beats school buses for safety is high speed rail (that's REAL high speed rail, on dedicated high speed lines with no level crossings...the US doesn't have this).  There has only ever been one fatal crash of a high-speed train.