Three students were struck and killed by their own school bus and another three were similarly killed by illegal passing motorists during the 2023-2024 school year, according to a national survey of states.

The National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey results were shared on Sunday by Keith Dreiling, the state director of the school bus safety unit at the Kansas State Department of Education, during the annual meeting of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services in Arlington, Virginia. The six fatalities are double the amount reported by states for the 2022-2023 school year.

Two of last year’s fatalities occurred in New York. Both students there were killed by their school bus. An 8-year-old boy was struck on Jan. 29 by his school bus and killed by the right rear wheel after he reportedly ran in front of the vehicle as it was pulling into its loading zone at school. A 5-year-old girl was killed nearly three weeks later on Feb. 16, after she unloaded from her school bus and crossed in front of it. The school bus driver reportedly did not see her and began to accelerate, striking the girl and knocking her to the pavement. The bus continued forward and the left rear wheels killed the girl.

The other fatality caused by the school bus occurred on Jan. 17 in Florida, where a boy exited the vehicle and then dropped a football. He crawled beneath the school bus to retrieve it and in the process was struck and killed by the right rear dual wheels.

The three illegal passing fatalities occurred in Alabama, Georgia and Texas. The Alabama and Texas incidents involved 15-year-old students, the former a subject of a high-profile investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. A 15-year-old girl was in her front yard on Oct. 23, 2023, and about to board her morning school bus, when a truck following the school bus failed to stop, swerved to the right, and continued into the girl’s path, striking her and then her house.

The Texas fatality occurred on Dec. 7 last year, when an 18-wheel, tractor-trailer truck struck a vehicle in front of it that was properly stopped for the school bus. The truck driver then swerved to the right and struck the 15-year-old boy after he exited his bus.

An 8-year-old Georgia girl died on Feb. 4, three days after being hit by an illegally passing oncoming motorist as she was attempting to board her school bus. The incident resulted in Addy’s Law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in April, to increase the fine for illegal school bus passers and add a prison term.

The school buses in the Alabama, Georgia and Texas incidents all had their red lights flashing and stop arms activated at the time of the collisions.

All U.S. states and the District of Columbia responded to the Kansas State Department of Education survey except New Jersey and Rhode Island, which refused to participate. The six recorded fatalities equal the amount reported for the 2021-2022 school year. The incidents all occurred in dry road conditions, with three occurring in daylight, two at dusk and one at dawn. Five of the fatalities occurred in clear weather conditions while one occurred in cloudy conditions.

The survey began in 1970 and has been conducted every year since. About 73 percent of the 1,273 total student fatalities recorded over the 54-year survey were students 9 years of age or younger. School buses have accounted for 717 of the total fatalities compared to 502 by illegally passing motorists and 54 categorized as “other information.” Sixty-four percent of all fatalities occurred during the morning commute to school.

Related: Louisiana 7-Year-Old Hit, Killed by School Bus
Related: Georgia Student Struck and Killed by Passing Vehicle
Related: Alabama High School Student Killed While Waiting for School Bus

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LORTON, Va. -BusPatrol, North America’s leading school bus stop-arm safety solution, is launching a crucial safety campaign to remind drivers to slow down and stop for school buses. As students nationwide prepare to head back to school, the initiative coincides with the release of concerning data showing a significant rise in illegal passing incidents.

Last month, the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) released new data from its annual school bus driver stop-arm survey, revealing that school buses are illegally passed an estimated 45.2 million illegal passes each school year. This marks a nearly four percent increase from the previous year’s figures, underscoring the urgent need for greater awareness and enforcement of school bus safety traffic laws.

“BusPatrol is leading the way to make our communities safer, and that begins by educating drivers on their responsibilities when they get behind the wheel,” stated Justin Meyers, President and Chief Innovation Officer at BusPatrol. “This national campaign is about making sure that all Americans follow the rules of the road and do their part to keep our children safe.”

As part of its campaign, BusPatrol is partnering with school districts and municipalities in states including Florida, Maryland, New York, Pennslyvania, and Virginia to run public services awareness campaigns through social media, paid advertisements, and other channels to remind motorists about school bus safety traffic laws.

Data from BusPatrol indicates that school buses were illegally passed over 75,000 times between August and September last year when the 2023-2024 school year started. BusPatrol’s back-to-school campaign seeks to spotlight school bus safety and drive behavioral change among drivers.

Nationwide, communities are increasingly adopting school bus photo enforcement programs to address the growing problem of stop-arm violations, including, most recently, Hillsborough County Public Schools and Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida. BusPatrol, a leading provider of this technology, has supported communities in reducing violations by over 40 percent in select areas.

For more information on BusPatrol’s efforts and to learn more about school bus safety, visit BusPatrol.com.

About BusPatrol:
BusPatrol is a safety technology company with the mission of making the journey to and from school safer for children. BusPatrol’s safety programs change driver behavior and create a culture of awareness and responsibility around school buses. In addition, they provide accessibility for school districts and municipalities to modernize their entire school bus fleets by outfitting them with the latest stop-arm, route planning, and route execution technology.

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