Freaking out about school bus

My son's preschool just sent home a note saying they are taking a field trip to a pumpkin farm in 2 weeks. They are using a "charter school bus" for transportation.

DS is only 3, and the youngest student there. I do not feel comfortable at all with him riding a school bus, but we don't have any alternate child care for that day. It's too short of notice to cancel my meetings, otherwise I would have just taken the day off and driven him myself.

When I was in kindergarten another bus from my school crashed and a child was killed and I had a girl in my class through high school who suffered from the effects of that accident (brain damage, etc.). I can't get it out of my mind.

From ntsb.gov:
"At 11:45 a.m., on January 10, 1984, a G & D Auto Sales, Inc., tow truck was turning right from the company's driveway onto westbound State Route 44 in ****, Massachusetts, when the rear-facing passenger car in tow, a 1981 Oldsmobile, was struck by an eastbound tractor-semitrailer operated by Branch Motor Express Company. The 76,950-pound tractor-semitrailer continued eastbound; crossed the centerline of the damp, two-lane, two-way roadway; and struck the left front of a westbound Town of **** schoolbus carrying 15 students, ages 5 and 6. The 1979 schoolbus overturned and came to rest on its roof off the roadway. The driver of the tractor-semitrailer, the driver of the schoolbus, and one student were killed; 12 students were injured. The driver of the tow truck was not injured."

3 is young. I am sure the techs can help you with what is appropriate for that age.
But Bus are inherently safer than cars. Most likely had the kids been in cars at that time, They would have all been killed.

As stated in the previous comment, busses are very safe. I am sorry that you experienced the loss of a schoolmate due to a bus accident. It is very rare because of the safety features that busses have, but that doesn't make it less tragic.

NHTSA has a section addressing preschoolers on school busses http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/buses/busseatbelt/index.html
It clearly states that a 3 year old is too small to be properly protected by compartmentalization and therefore needs to be in a child restraint. Did they mention anything about sending a car seat?

I have an email in to the director but no response yet...they did not mention a car seat. If I could install my extra Roundabout in the bus when I drop him off in the morning, I would feel SO much better, but I don't even know yet whether or not the bus has seat belts.

I understand compartmentalization, and like you said, 3 is too young. It also depends on the rider being seated and facing forward in the seat, and I know DS does not have this level of maturity.

I always had a sense that the child who died was standing up at the time. Whether I was actually told that or I inferred that, I'm not sure.

I know that statistically buses are very safe, but it's hard to not feel anxious when your personal experience is different.

Even though your son is the youngest in the group, it sounds like this is a preschool (not an elementary school), and thus *all* of the kids are below NHTSA's recommended size/age for compartmentalization to be effective. The school should be ensuring that the charter bus has seat belts and that all parents bring and install a carseat. That is how my child's daycare center has always handled things.

I'm kinda holding a mixed bag when a large number of very small children are being transported by bus. Compartmentalization really needs kids to be 40 # or up, but with a car seat misuse rate of above 90%, I'm not sure that passenger car transport is any safer. Bus crashes are much much rarer that car crashes, so the mathematical odds are better for these children on buses. My car seat tech side rebels however because I truely want the best for my own children at all times.

I live very close to San Fransisco. The Muni system probably has more crashes than any other in the US, and still, injury rates are far below that of passenger cars. These are buses without compartmentalization at all. Size matters when it comes to vehicular safety, in a big way.

If it helps, I was a teacher and had the option of taking my own 34# 3yo on the bus with me during summer field trips 3 times a week. (my other option would have been not having summer employment and starving). I tossed the worries around and decided that the risks were far out-weighed by the benefits.

I definitely agree about taking the broader perspective on safety and the relative safety of buses and trains. My own children travel on public transit almost every day, and even completely unrestrained they are statistically safer than in our car.

That being said, NHTSA guidelines do suggest that a "preschool age" child should use a harnessed carseat (or similar appropriate restraint) on a school bus.

It sounded like the OP was from Mass., and I know that at least some of the charter school buses here do have seatbelts (usually manually adjusted lap-only belts). I have installed carseats on them many times for field trips of just the kind that was described and did not witness any significant misuse; but then again I am not a tech and wasn't necessarily on the lookout for it.

Yes, it's preschool (3, 4 and 5 year olds). I'd be more comfortable if he was 4 or 5. He's 34 lbs, 38 inches, if that makes a difference. He's the youngest, having just turned 3, but not the smallest.

I spoke with my mom who was a teacher in the school district at that time, so she has pretty good memories of the accident. She said that the child who died was riding in the front seat...i.e. a seat that had the stairs in front of it and not another seat back. So maybe that's why compartmentalization didn't work?

I guess if you think about it, the fact that 14 children survived being hit by a tractor trailer and the bus rolling over means that it was a pretty safe vehicle. Does anyone know if bus safety technology has improved since the early 80s?

I grew up in MA but we live in PA now...anyone know if it's a law that a 3 yo would need to be in a car seat on a school bus?

cottonpenny said:

I spoke with my mom who was a teacher in the school district at that time, so she has pretty good memories of the accident. She said that the child who died was riding in the front seat...i.e. a seat that had the stairs in front of it and not another seat back. So maybe that's why compartmentalization didn't work?

I guess if you think about it, the fact that 14 children survived being hit by a tractor trailer and the bus rolling over means that it was a pretty safe vehicle. Does anyone know if bus safety technology has improved since the early 80s?

Click to expand...

As horrible as it is that even one child died, regarding the safety and manufacturing standards for school buses, at least here in Canada most of the modern safety standards we are used to seeing on school buses were not required for school buses manufactured before 1981 (or was in 1982?). Here anyways many pre-safety standard buses were still in use until the mid 1980's.

What you said in your quote, about how the child was seated in the front seat that had only the handrail in front and not a padded seatback, as modern buses have, tells me it was probably unfortunately a pre-major safety standards bus. The dates between Canada and the USA on when these features were required probably don't differ by more than a few years at the most I would expect.

When I attended junior and senior kindergarten (school years 1982-1983 and 1983-1984) our lunchtime bus (which it sounds like the one in the accident was) was an older 1970's bus.

It had no stop arm (most other buses had them then), and get this...the very front seats on either side of the aisle were sideways facing, into the aisle! We weren't allowed to sit on those though. The other seats had seatbelts though... one lapbelt to go across both kids! We used to get a real kick out of "switching seats" against the rules, by sliding our bums from one "seat" to the other under the belt after our seatmate had gotten off.

So I hope that eases your mind...you really can't compare a 1970's school bus with the ones in use today. And as a PP said, if a car had collided with the semi most likely everyone inside would have been killed. Although yes a child below 40 lbs really should be in a car seat, although at least statistically the bus is probably safer than a car in any instance.