School Bus Safety by the Numbers: What the Data Reveals
As National School Bus Safety Week concludes, crash data and surveys highlight risks around stops, crossings and school zones.
- By Chelsey Arries
- October 22, 2026
A school bus offers children substantial protection on the road. Getting to its doors, however, can expose students to motorists who ignore warning lights, pass illegally or fail to watch for pedestrians.
As National School Bus Safety Week, observed Oct. 19-23, 2026, concludes, federal crash records and national surveys offer different views of those risks. Together, they point to safety needs extending from passenger protection to the roads children cross. The National Transportation Safety Board considers school buses among the safest transportation options but has identified improvements needed inside and outside them.
What Crash Records Show
From 2015 through 2024, crashes involving school buses killed 1,069 people, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. School-age children accounted for 204 deaths, including 77 pedestrians and 39 school bus occupants.
Those figures cover crashes involving school buses broadly. A separate measure focuses on illegal passing: Between 2000 and 2024, crashes involving drivers passing stopped school buses illegally killed 63 people. Among them were 27 pedestrians age 18 or younger.
What Bus Drivers Report
The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services estimates more than 38.4 million illegal school bus passings over a 180-day school year.
That projection comes from its 2026 survey, in which 101,334 bus drivers across 39 states and the District of Columbia reported 56,024 illegal passings during a one-day count. The annual figure is an extrapolation, rather than a tally of individually documented violations nationwide. It declined from the previous estimate of 39.3 million.
What Parents Experience
In a Governors Highway Safety Association survey, 46% of parents whose children ride buses reported that their child had experienced a close call involving dangerous driving near a bus or school zone.
The national sample included 525 parents of children ages 6-17. Conducted on behalf of BusPatrol, the research also found 91% support for automated stop-arm enforcement.
Turning Findings into Prevention
The NTSB recommends minimizing stops that require children to cross roads and allowing camera evidence to support illegal-passing citations. It also recommends lap-and-shoulder belts and collision avoidance technology on new buses.
Families have a role at each stop. NHTSA advises teaching children to remain at least 10 feet from the curb, wait for the driver’s boarding signal and check traffic before crossing. Those routines reinforce protections that must continue after the awareness week ends.
About the Author
Chelsey Arries is assistant editor of Security Today, Campus Security Today, Occupational Health & Safety and Environmental Protection Online.