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School Buses Slow Down!
by Anonymous

9-17-01                                       
School Buses Slow Down!
I’ve noticed the speeding buses and cars in my neighborhood in the past. My wife and I don’t let our son play in the front yard (supervised or unsupervised) because we’ve been afraid he’ll be hit by one. Last Friday) afternoon (9-17 at about 4:00 our first child, a beloved member of our family for 7 years was killed by a school bus in front of our home. Her name was Champ, a very loving Shepard/Husky mix dog we adopted at a shelter for abused animals.

I don’t know if that bus was speeding or not. What I do know is that my heart aches. I’m angry. I’m depressed. I hurt. My wife shares these same feelings. It makes me sick to watch the buses speed down Greenwood Drive to and from the Murphy Elementary school further down the road; an accident waiting to happen.
I’ve never seen a school bus being pulled over by the police.

I know folks have their deadlines, parents don’t want to be kept waiting, drivers want to get home to their families, but bus drivers, please remember the responsibility you hold in protecting our children. Not only the kids on the bus but the ones in the street. I feel most bus drivers are safety conscious, but everyone gets caught up in the hustle and bustle of a busy day now and then.

I see the police presence at the Murphy school and feel at ease when passing by. I applaud the efforts of the police department for trying to clean up our neighborhood too. I received 2 tickets for parking my car in the side yard on Friday morning. I went to move it Friday afternoon when Champ got through the gate without my noticing. A few minutes later my wife was screaming my name to help Champ lying in the street, a school bus a few feet up the road. It was too late, she was gone by the time I ran to her. The neighbors called the police and came to our home to help. What a horrible day.

My 2 year old son Jimmy calls Champs name but she doesn’t come. Jimmy says Champ went by-by.

Please slow down, next time it may be a child. To the Round Lake Police department: I hope you check for speeding school buses on a regular basis considering the dire consequences one accident can have upon our families, children and community.

Submitted By:
Jim & Sandy Peters
520 Greenwood Drive
Round Lake, IL
60073
847-201-1031

Note:
There have been at least 62,000 pupil injuries in reported school bus accidents in the period 1991 to 1996. There were at least 59 passenger fatalities. (Accident Facts, National Safety Council 1992-97 editions; Fatal Accident Reporting System)
Research done by CNN shows that school bus passenger injuries have risen by 94% between 1985-96 nationally.
The National Highway Traffic Safety administration (NHTSA) uses the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) to obtain information on the number of fatalities in school buses each year and reports the results in a publication - Traffic Safety Facts - School Buses. FARS reports during a 10 year period, 1987 - 1997, an average 10 school bus occupants and 25 pedestrians were killed annually in school bus related crashes.

To provide additional insight into the amount of injuries in school buses, NHTSA uses data from the General Estimates System (GES) which is a nationally representative sample of police reported motor vehicle crashes of all types of motor vehicle incidents, from minor to fatal. The system began operation in 1988, and was created to identify traffic safety problem areas, provide a basis for regulatory and consumer initiatives, and form the basis for cost and benefit analyses of traffic safety initiatives. These crash reports are chosen from 60 areas that reflect the geography, roadway mileage, population, and traffic density of the U.S. The data is collected from approximately 400 police jurisdictions across the United States, where they randomly sample about 50,000 police reports each year. GES estimates from 1988 - 1996 there are approximately 8,500 injuries in school buses each year.
The National Safety Council (NSC), a non-governmental agency, reports during the 1995 - 1996 school year, 16 pupils were killed and 13,000 pupils were injured inside a school bus. These estimates are projected from data received from 36 states and the District of Columbia.





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