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School bus travel is one of the safest forms of transportation on the road today. The passenger fatality rate in school buses is 0.2 fatalities per million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as compared to 1.5 per million VMT for passenger cars and 1.3 per million VMT for light trucks. Each year on average, nine school bus passengers are fatally injured in school bus crashes while sixteen school-age pedestrians are fatally injured by the school bus. Although much has been done to improve the safety of school buses over the years, more research may reflect new ways to better protect school bus passengers. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in 1999 that current compartmentalization is incomplete in large school buses in that it does not protect passengers during lateral impacts. In order to better understand severe lateral impacts to school buses and the resulting passenger motion and injuries, the stiffness of the side of the school bus needed to be determined.

The National Transportation Safety Board examined the effect of not using an age-appropriate restraint system and the effect of not using a restraint system properly on injury severity. The Safety Board found that improperly restrained children in an age-appropriate restraint system sustained a greater proportion of moderate or worse (AIS 2-6) injuries than properly restrained children who were in the wrong restraint for their size. This was true particularly for infants and small children who were likely to be in a child restraint system. The study underscores the importance of proper use of restraint systems and makes recommendations for improvements in restraint system designs for children.

Data compiled for most accident reporting systems are typically the result of police accident investigations. Usually police officers have neither the time nor the experience to conduct in-depth accident investigations or collect the necessary data, when trucks are involved, that will allow examination of the relationships between trucks and the roadway environment. When accidents involve multiple deaths or numerous injuries, special police agencies or accident investigation teams may devote the resources necessary to examine truck-roadway environment relationships. This paper examines microscopic data, including specific accident investigations, to determine problem areas and to identify vehicle characteristics. Then macroscopic studies and nationwide accident statistics are analyzed to define the potential scope of vehicle-roadway environment-related problems, with emphasis on trucks.

The small proportion of rear seat occupants, and the small proportion of those who use lap belts, make accumulation of sufficient reliable data on rear seat lap belted accident victims difficult. Existing studies have produced a wide variety of effectiveness estimates. The National Transportation Safety Board reported the outcomes of 30 crashes, predominantly frontal, involving unrestrained, lap/shoulder belted, and lap belted occupants (mainly rear seat). The Board recommended rear seat lap/shoulder belts for new cars, retrofit assemblies for existing models, and improved training of emergency care providers in diagnosis and handling of belt-induced trauma.

This paper provides a protocol for the examination of school bus vehicles to support accident investigation and reconstruction. The topics covered are generally beyond what is normally conducted during a routine commercial motor coach accident investigation. Included are suggested points on administrative preparation, information research, logistics, examination equipment preparation, photography, and safety precautions. The examination protocol addresses inspection of the vehicle interior, under (front) hood, and exterior damage. Passenger compartment integrity and intrusion, occupant kinematic contact and evidentiary transfers, seating, and occupant restraint system components are addressed, along with evidentiary component recovery and packaging, for potential shipment to a laboratory.

School bus travel is one of the safest forms of transportation, yet each year an average of nine school bus occupants are fatally injured in school bus crashes. Although much has been done to improve the safety of school buses over the years, more research may reflect new ways to better protect school bus occupants. Current school bus occupant protection is based on a concept called compartmentalization, meaning that the seats are closely spaced together, high backed, well padded, and are designed to absorb energy during a crash. Although this design works well in frontal impacts, compartmentalization may not protect occupants as well in side impacts and rollovers.

Rear-end collisions account for over 1.7 million crashes1 that occur on U.S. highways each year, and the number is growing. In the past 2 years, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated nine rear-end collisions in which 21 people died and 182 were injured. Technology exists today that could have saved these lives. Since 1995, the NTSB has recommended the testing and use of collision warning systems (CWS) to prevent or alleviate the severity of rear-end collisions. This report will describe the accidents that NTSB investigated in 1999 and 2000, how technology can help drivers prevent such accidents, and NTSB's position on these technologies that can save lives.