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A POOR GRADE FOR THE REPORT CARDParents should not be misled by Dr. Cal LeMon's questionable assertion that, the single greatest risk to children is not taking the school bus. "In fact, it's 87 times safer for your child to take the school bus than driving them yourself, letting them ride with friends, or even walking and bicycling," says LeMon. He alleges that 600 children are killed every year going to and from school in some other vehicle than a school bus. Unfortunately, the facts, as detailed in his 2000 Report Card on School Bus Safety in the U.S., are not supportive. To determine the relative safety of school buses, LeMon based his calculations on available data indicating the number of school age children killed in passenger cars from 6:00 to 9:00 AM and 2:00 to 5:00 PM, Mondays to Fridays between September 1 and June 15 as furnished by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). At the same time he indicates that in contrast to the total of 600, only 10 were killed on school buses. LeMon's current calculations, now apparently down to just 60 times safer, are grossly flawed. In order to ride a school bus back and forth to school children must get on and off the bus. NHTSA reports that the overwhelming majority of child fatalities, 78%, occur during loading and unloading the school bus. Annually, more children are run over and killed by their own school bus than from accidental deaths on the school bus. These children would be alive today if they had NOT taken the school bus. Since their youngsters cannot ride without getting on and off, parents should be aware that it here that the primary danger lies. They should also know that in failing to factor in these fatalities, LeMon has made a four fold error in over-valuating the safety of school bussing. Further, when determining the time period from September 1 to June 15 in which he claims that 600 children were killed on their way to school in passenger cars, LeMon failed to allow for school days off, holidays and vacations. As a result, non bus fatalities were evaluated over a 205 day period and compared to school bus operations of just 180 days, a 25 day (5 school week) miscalculation. Last year when LeMon produced a similar report, I checked his New Jersey profile. During 1997 according to LeMon there were 12 fatalities that were supposed to meet his criteria. In checking the dates I found that two were on Saturdays, one on Memorial Day and another during Christmas vacation. After thus eliminating one-third of his data, and without actual accident reports, I was unable to determine whether the children were on their way to school, on the way home or not going to or from school at all. However, I did find out that of the remaining eight, with the exception of just one 6 year old passenger, all were older. Four drivers were 17, one passenger was 18, another 17 and a third was 16. This should come as no surprise. Teenage drivers have three times the fatality rate of their parents. And most parents are well aware of the danger of the young, inexperienced driver and these parents have made reasoned choices as to whether to permit their high school children to drive or to be passengers on the trips back and forth to school. Parent's true concerns with school bus safety should focus on the bus loading area because it is there that most fatalities occur. And it is mostly the younger children who are most likely to be killed. National figures indicate that 2/3 of these children are 5, 6 and 7 years old and as indicated above, most often by their own school bus. Parents should insist that their kids are properly instructed in loading and unloading procedures, that these techniques are reinforced at school, on the bus and at home. Bus routes must be devised to pick up and discharge children on the same side of the street as they reside to eliminate crossing in front of or behind the bus. Cal LeMon's urging to get "...more children to ride school buses-that's where the big safety payoff is." must be viewed with extreme caution. Parents must understand that school buses are nowhere near as safe as LeMon contends. He compares the record of school buses to that of teenage drivers, ignores fatalities getting on and off the bus and overstates the non bus deaths. No effort was made to determine if the non bus fatalities actually occurred when going back and forth to school, or whether children are more or less safe when their own parents drive.
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