450,000 yellow school buses provide transportation service daily nationwide.

23.5 million elementary and secondary school children ride school buses daily throughout the United States, twice a day.

That's about 47,000,000 student trips daily -- before you throw in an estimated 5,000,000 more for activity trips daily.

That means approximately 54% of all K-12 students in the country ride yellow school buses.

This equals about about 10 billion individual student rides, or 20 billion boardings and disembarking, annually.

America spends an average of $493 per regular ed child for transportation annually.

America spends an average of $2,460 per special needs child for transportation annually.

Slightly more than 46,000 school buses were manufactured during the 12 months of the 1998-99 school year.

350 pupil transportation delegates are appointed by the chief school officer in each state meet for a week-long conference once every five years to review and rewrite minimum standards and specifications for safe operation; The 13th National Conference on School Transportation is scheduled for May 14-19, 2000.

Three-point seat belts are required by federal law on all newly manufactured small school buses under 10,000 lbs. nationwide.

Only two states -- New York and New Jersey -- currently require two-point seat belts on large school buses over 10,000 lbs.
New Jersey not only requires lap belt installation on new large school buses, students are required to use them. In New York, use is only required if the local school district adopts a policy mandating their use. About 25 of the 725 districts in the state have done so.

Three states -- Florida, Louisiana and California -- enacted laws in the summer of 1999 requiring seat belts or some other form of occupant protection on large school buses. The final decision in these three states awaits completion of a comprehensive study of occupant protection currently underway by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Great Britain requires lap belts on mini-vans used in youth transport, including school transport. Meanwhile, the Economic Commission of Europe has begun to require that coaches and minivans be equipped with occupant restraint systems, but has not mandated their use for school service in any of its 15 member nations.

The national school bus accident rate is 0.02 per 100 million miles traveled;

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 96% of the estimated 8,500 to 12,000 children injured in school bus accidents annually are considered minor (scrapes, bumps, bruises, etc.)

NHTSA calculated that 4% of the school bus-related injuries to children -- about 350 to 475 annually -- are serious (i.e. broken bones or worse) based on the medical community's widely accepted AIS or Abbreviated Injury Scale.

Meanwhile, an average of 11 children are fatally injured inside school buses annually;

About 15 are fatally injured as pedestrians in the loading & unloading zone around school buses annually.

That's better than 200% improvement from 75 school bus fatalities in 1975; it is still not good enough.

Between 1989 and 1996, 9,500 school-age children were killed during school hours while riding in all kinds of motor vehicles. About 600 school age children are killed annually, during school hours and on school days only, automobiles riding to and from school in automobiles.

Click here to visit a "Report Card on School Bus Safety" in the United States.