How Safe are School Buses? – A Look at the Data
Vehicle crash involving a school bus on Hwy 64 in Asheboro in 2019. [Acme News Archive Photo]
ASHEBORO N.C. - Two separate school bus crashes on October 12th, 2023, raised questions online about the safety of school buses, so we decided to look at the data to see just how safe children who ride the bus to school are on the road.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) school bus accidents account for less than 1% of all traffic fatalities. While that 'less than 1%' is a national figure, here in NC, the data backs up that number.
Using crash report numbers from the N.C. Department of Transportation's annual traffic facts publication for 2015 through 2022, we analyzed the numbers for school bus accidents for North Carolina.
In the eight years we ...