The National Transportation Safety Board is calling on school districts to take extra precautions when selecting motorcoaches, small buses or vans for charter trips.

In a new safety alert released June 3, the NTSB stated that districts when scheduling charter trips should choose passenger carriers with a strong safety record, proper licensing and insurance, and vehicles equipped with lap/shoulder seatbelts for seating position. NTSB added that drivers should provide pre-trip safety briefings, including how to use seatbelts, where emergency exits are located and what passengers should do in an emergency.

The agency noted that past crash investigations have shown that serious injuries and deaths can occur when seatbelts are not available or worn. It highlighted past crashes, one of which took place in Orland, California in April 2014. ​A truck-tractor was traveling south when it crossed the center median and collided with a passenger vehicle traveling north. It continued south in the northbound lanes and collided head-on with a bus that was chartered to transport high school students and adult chaperones to a local university.

A post-crash fire ensued. The truck-tractor driver, the bus driver and eight bus passengers died. The remaining 37 bus passengers sustained injuries of varying degrees, and the two occupants of the passenger vehicle sustained minor injuries. The bus driver did not play the bus company’s prerecorded safety briefing, which showed where to find the bus emergency exits and fire extinguishers. The passengers were also not informed of the available lap/shoulder belts. Only one passenger was wearing a lap/shoulder belt.

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In Wawayanda, New York in September 2023, a bus chartered by a New York school district to transport students to a band camp had a tire failure, causing the bus to cross the left-hand land and shoulder, penetrate a roadside cable barrier, traveled down into the median, and roll before coming to rest on its left. The charter trip bus was occupied by the driver, 40 high school students, and three adult chaperones, two of which were ejected and died.

The driver was ejected and seriously injured. Fourteen other occupants sustained serious injuries, and 27 had minor injuries. The 2014 bus was equipped with lap/shoulder belts in all seating positions, but only one passenger was belted at the time of the crash. The driver, who was also not belted, stated that she did not provide a pre-trip safety briefing and that the school had not requested one, NTSB relayed.

Then in Etna, Ohio in November 2023, a tractor-trailer rear-ended a car in traffic, causing a chain reaction of collisions. A school bus chartered by a school district for a field trip carrying 52 school students and three faculty members was among the vehicles involved in the crash. As a result of the crash, three bus occupants died, three were seriously injured, and 36 had minor injuries. Three occupants of other vehicles also died. The bus was not equipped with passenger seatbelts (lap or lap/shoulder belts) because at the time it was built, these belts were not required by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. NTSB added the bus driver did not conduct a pre-trip safety briefing as required by the bus company’s driver handbook.

The checklist is aimed at helping schools make safer transportation decisions for athletic events, field trips and other off-campus activities. View the full list.

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