Safety standards for School buses and Motorcoaches

In this brief article, I want to share two important safety aspects of school buses and operations in the US. The first relates to national construction standards for school buses. In the US, we have the National School Transportation Specification and Procedures Manual that captures the work of countless transportation professionals since its inception in 1939. Every five years industry leaders from across the nation represent their State in delegations of up to seven people at the National Congress on School Transportation (NCST). These men and women review a living document that started as a 46-page document in 1939 and has grown to 533 pages in 2015. This document is essentially our industries bible for which we have a baseline of standards and best practices.

Specific areas of the manual include bus body and chassis specifications, specially equipped school bus specifications, school bus inspections program and out-of-service criteria, recommended school bus inspection procedures, alternative fuels, operations, activity bus operations, school transportation security and emergency preparedness, transportation for students with disabilities and special health care needs, infants, toddlers and pre-school children along with appendices and resolutions.

This manual is a wealth of knowledge and is accessible for no cost at: http://www.ncstonline.org/. In fact, past publications can be accessed from 1939-2015 at this website. A similar document is available detailing the Canadian CSA D250-10 School Bus Safety Standards.

These documents are very detailed highlighting the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), specifically for school buses. An example of one FMVSS is FMVSS No. 111 (§571.111) that addresses the field of view which pertains to mandated equipment and standards that must be met. So school bus drivers can see their passengers in the danger zone around the front and sides of the school bus. The NCST document states:

Crossview: Convex mirrors mounted on the front of the school bus and designed for student detection during loading and unloading, also known as System B mirrors and including elliptical, quadri-spherical, banana, or standard convex mirrors.
Driving: Flat and convex mirrors mounted on each side of the bus designed for viewing the road along the sides to the rear while driving; also known as rearview, double nickel, west coast, or System A mirrors (p. 274).

These crossview mirrors must allow the driver to see from the front bumper of the school bus, out 12 feet (3.66 meters). Note: Crossview mirrors are not to be used to view traffic along the sides of the bus; they are solely for seeing children in the danger zone when loading and unloading.

The flat driving mirrors must allow the driver to see 200 feet (61 meters) to the rear of the bus. The convex driving mirrors need to allow the driver to see along the sides of the bus, specifically 12 feet (3.6576 meters) at the rear axle on the passenger side (right) of the bus and six feet (1.83 meters) at the rear axle on the driver side (left) of the bus.

The second safety item all school bus, coach, motorcoach operators, and policy makers need to be aware of is the importance of bus driver training. The safest piece of equipment on a bus is a well-trained bus driver. Safety does not happen on its own or by osmosis. An operation (and industry) can only realize safety success after deliberate and well-designed training programs are passionately shared with all drivers, mechanics, and office staff. A safety culture is critical if our passengers are to be protected and safely delivered to and from their destinations. Driver training needs to cover many topics in order to have well-prepared drivers on the roadways.

The US has been the leader in the field of mass transit but there are opportunities for all nations to collaborate together with the goal of improving passenger safety. There are many differences between school buses in the US and Canada compared to the rest of the world. Our buses in North America are built like tanks. This is a great safety aspect for passengers, but not so good for other motorists who may come into contact with our buses.

School buses in the US and Canada sit up higher and most vehicles drive under our buses often causing serious injuries. European buses mostly use motorcoach style buses. The benefit of these buses lies in their abilities to transfer crash forces from one vehicle to another.

Many buses manufactured outside of Northern America look like the traditional school bus. However, they lack safety standards and the ability to easily replace bus body parts. Our school buses are designed to maintain the passenger compartment as a unit and specifically breakaway from the chassis in the event of a major collision, whereas many buses in China and other nations weld their bodies to the chassis and this compromises safety in the event of a major collision.

The Indian bus market is growing rapidly. Government officials need to have established safety regulations to put passenger safety as a top priority as accidents can and will happen. I had the opportunity to visit Mumbai a few years ago and the drivers are very good at being aware of their surroundings. I was in awe of so much traffic and so few accidents. As more vehicles are added to an already crowded roadway, the need for good driver training is more important now than ever. I hope the Indian people will look to learn from the Northern American and European countries in the school bus and Motorcoach industries. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, instead I look forward to the Indian bus market learning from us and improving upon our successes.

The following list covers some of the items necessary in a good driver training program: