Road Safety in school transport

Every day millions of children need to displace from home to schools. This displacement can be made through different modes: private cars, school transport, public transport, walking and cycling. Whereas special EU wide statistics on accidents during the school travelling are not available, considering the distribution of accidents of children over a normal work day, it is clear that on their way to and from school, there is a potential risk for children to be involved in an accident.

Statistics from USA, Canada and Australia also confirm that public transport (and school transport in particular) has a high level of safety, just like in Europe. For instance, the Australian College of Road Safety notes that bus travel is the safest form of road transport, at least 14 times safer than the private car, and that the record for school bus travel in particular is very good. Also the research undertaken by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in USA notes that when comparing the number of fatalities of children age 5 to 18 during normal school transportation hours, from 1989 to 1999 school years, school buses are 87 times safer than passenger cars.

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