School Bus Accident Data

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported  the following statistics on school transportation accidents between 1996 and 2006.

* 1,536 people  died in school transportation-related crashes. Compare that with 41,059 traffic fatalities in the United States in 2007 alone.

* An average of 40 people per year died in school bus accidents.

* 72 percent of school bus accident fatalities were occupants of other vehicles.

*  20 percent were non-occupants such as pedestrians or bicyclists.

*  7 percent were school bus occupants.

* About 57 percent of crashes involving a school bus involved another vehicle.

* In 53 percent of all crashes involving fatalities to occupants of a school bus, the principle point of impact was the front of the bus. The least common point of impact was the rear.

* Of 41 fatal school bus crashes between 1996 and 2006, 17 involved the front of the bus, 6 involved the right side, 3 involved the left side, and 3 involved the rear.

* Each year, 23.5 million children ride 450,000 school buses to school.

* Those 450,000 school buses travel about 4.3 billion miles annually.

Ken Shigley has served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute, co-sponsored by the Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina Trial Lawyers Associations.  He is on the National Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and is actively involved in the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. A member of the Million Dollar Advocates, he has successfully tried truck, bus and passenger van accident cases with multimillion dollar verdicts and settlements.  He has lectured on truck and bus litigation topics at  continuing legal education programs both at home in Georgia and in Nashville, New Orleans and St. Louis, and is scheduled to do so in Chicago this fall. A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he is also a Master of the Lamar Inn of Court at Emory Law School, a faculty member for ten years at the Emory University Law School Trial Techniques Program, and was recently elected Secretary of the 39,000 member State Bar of Georgia.