Engineering360: "NTSB Report Calls for School Bus Safety Upgrades"

Make the buses safer (more expensive) because school transportation officials are incapable of finding safe bus drivers?? What am I missing here?

School buses probably have one of the lowest injury per passenger mile of any ground transportation.

Robin, what say you.

My observation : school bus drivers tend to belong to three groups. A. Retired ( 65 and older ) B. Housewives looking for part-time extra money employment. C. Over age 21 college students.

Working hours : 6-9 am / 3-6 pm. Less than 30 hours per week. Split shifts and split days combined. Example - work Monday am, then Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday - am & pm, etc.

Usually no benefits other than federal or state mandated workman's compensation.

Pay average $14.00 x 3 = $42.00 - taxes = $26.00 ÷ 3 = $8.60 per hour / drivers hired on a part time and on call basis.

Average day : awake at 0400, work 6-9, return home (?) The one thing log books don't require is for the drivers to provide an explanation of what they did while off duty, but every other notation ( change of duty status ) does. Return at 1500 to 1800. Return home. Total time awake ( potentially 17-18 hours.

Look into your local school bus, it may look almost identical to the bus you rode as a kid. The only padded areas are seats and seat backs, everything else is steel or hard surfaces ( your average 1950's - 1960's car ) at the minimum, seat belts should be installed or should of been installed years ago. The only saving grace is the above ground seat height.

There's more, but I'm trying to make this a short post.

What say me is that I put my four children on school buses without seat beats and didn't worry about it one bit.

https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/Pages/schoolbuses.aspx

I get it that school bus drivers are not very well compensated. That's the way it's always been and probably always will be. Safety of school buses are very much in the hands of the driver. If school systems want better drivers, they'll have to PAY to get better drivers.

Lotsa folks want safety belts (including the NTSB, NSC, NHTSA, etc.) Will that improve safety? Sure. But by how much and at what cost? Will the kids even use them?

Would we advocate a national speed limit of 25 m.p.h. because it would clearly save more lives?

I think they will, children today have been exposed to a large mix of safety messages. The two biggest messages I remember as a kid were Smokey the bear and duck and cover drills.