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[+] school bus travel, cycling, pedestrians, child car seats and vehicles, and teen drivers. Newsday via Getty Images For many children and teens across the country, the back-to-school season is a time of fresh starts. It’s also a time to embrace the importance of safety.
From 2013 to 2022, more than 1,000 people died in school-transportation-related crashes – an average of 108 fatalities per year. Of those killed in the last decade, 198 were children aged 18 and younger, who rode in buses or cars, walked, biked, used personal devices like skateboards and scooters, and crossed roadways to get to and from school. “Tragedy can strike in a split second, so let’s all be extra cautious as children head back to school,” Sophie Shulman, deputy administrator of the U.
S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration , said in a statement. The federal agency released the recent fatality figures in conjunction with its consumer advisory to urge everyone to drive safely and be alert as children head back to school.
It offers a series of safety tips to parents, students, drivers, guardians and others about school bus travel, cycling, pedestrians, child car seat and vehicle, and teen drivers. For example, drivers, the federal agency advised, should watch out for children and follow all traffic laws, including speed limits in school zones, always yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, and never pass school buses when their lights are flashing and stop arms are extended. Parents should teach their children to arrive at the bus stop at least five minutes before the bus is scheduled to arrive.
Students should stay at least ten feet—five giant steps—away from the curb, always wait for the bus to stop completely and the bus driver to signal it’s safe to board, exit the bus after it stops, wait for the bus driver to signal it’s safe to cross, and then look left-right-left for cars before crossing a street in front of the bus, never behind. MORE FOR YOU New Password Hacking Warning For Gmail, Facebook And Amazon Users Trump Vs. Harris 2024 Polls: Harris Leading Likely Voters By 2 Points In Latest Survey Samsung Slashes Galaxy S24 Price Ahead Of iPhone 16 Release “Parents, please talk to your kids, whether they ride a bus, bicycle, walk or drive to school.
And all drivers, stay alert on the roads—it could save a life,” Shulman added. Cathay Chase,president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety , told Forbes, “to further enhance their safety, state governments should enact comprehensive distracted driving laws and leverage effective technologies like speed and red-light cameras.” Speed increases, for example, have major implications for pedestrians, the advocacy group noted.
The average risk of death for a pedestrian is 10 % at an impact speed of 23 mph, 25 % at 32 mph, and 50 % at 42 mph. All states, it said, should allow speed safety and red-light cameras and put them to use. function loadConnatixScript(document) { if (!window.
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“While this is an exciting milestone, it is crucial to acknowledge that their inexperience and tendency to take greater risks make them more susceptible to fatal crashes,” Chase added. Graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs, which introduce teens to the driving experience gradually by phasing in full driving privileges over time, have been effective in reducing teen crash deaths, the group said. Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety publishes its annual Roadmap to Safety report that details roadway risks that all parents should be aware of and proven solutions that states can implement.
“Safeguarding our children means safeguarding our future, making it essential for drivers to avoid distractions by putting away their cell phones, maintaining safe speeds and stopping for school bus crossing arms and lights.” For more information on back-to-school safety tips, click here . For more information on teen driving safety, click here .
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