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"Stay Back, Stay Back, From the Yellow and Black" is this year's National School Bus Safety Week theme. But bus safety isn't a one-week topic. It's a year-round subject that connects to many curriculum areas.

More than 22 million U.S. students ride school buses daily, according to officials of the National Safe Kids Campaign. Each year, approximately 390,000 public school buses travel about 4.2 billion miles!

Although school buses are one of the safest ways to travel to and from school, injuries do occur. In 1994, 32 children aged 14 and under were killed in bus-related incidents. Twenty-five of the children killed were pedestrians. (Most of those children were struck by their own school buses.)

In addition, many more children -- more than 7,000, in fact - are injured while in a school bus or while getting on or off school buses. Many injuries happen when children are boarding or exiting because a blind spot extends approximately 10 feet in front of the bus, obstructing the view of the driver. Children are not aware of this blind spot and might mistakenly believe that if they can see the bus, the bus can "see" them.

School bus safety is serious business -- because one bus-related death is too many. Qualified and well-trained drivers are the main defense against school bus fatalities. That, and children who know the rules -- and obey them.

School bus rules should be introduced to children early in the school year -- not just during "National School Bus Safety Week (October 20-26, 2002). And the bus safety rules should be reviewed often.

Following are a few activities that you might use this month with your students to build awareness of the rules and responsibilities of safe bus riding.

Bus safety rules. Invite students to visit a couple Web sites to compile a list of bus safety rules. Among the sites students might visit are:

• Safety Rules Safety rules from Robin Padgett, aka "Busmom," who for 14 years has been driving a school bus for Lynchburg (Virginia) Schools.
• Bus Safety Tips Laidlaw Transit's top ten ways to make school bus trips safe and fun.

Invite each student to select a rule and to make poster to promote that safety rule. Display the posters in the school hallway or busroom.

National School Bus Safety Week Poster Contest. The theme of the 2002 National School Bus Safety Week Poster Contest is "Stay Back, Stay Back, From the Yellow and Black." Click here for information about the contest. All entries in this year's contest must follow contest guidelines and be received by October 18, 2002. Prizes are awarded in four divisions -- grades K-3; grades 4-6, grades 7-8, and special needs.

Spelling. (You might use this activity as a cooperative group activity.) The theme of this year's National School Bus Safety Week is "Stay Back, Stay Back, From the Yellow and Black." Write that theme on the board and invite students to use the letters in that theme to spell as many words as they can. Words must be three letters or more. Any letter that doesn't appear more than once in the theme can't be used more than once in the word lists (e.g., the word cellar can be spelled, but the word food cannot be used because there is only one o in the theme expression).

Science. Read aloud one of the books from the The Magic School Bus series. Or view one of the series' videos. (See the story about The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip, the latest book in the series, on this week's Books in Education page.)

Geography. On a map of your community, trace the route that the bus takes to school.

Read the table. Invite students to study the chart below. Then ask five to ten questions and see if your students can correctly answer them by using that information. Sample questions:

• About how many motor vehicle accidents in 1995 involved buses? (50,000)
• Which type of vehicle was involved in more fatal accidents - motorcycles or farm tractors? (motorcycles)
• Which type of vehicle was involved in 21 percent of all accidents? (light trucks)
• Which type of vehicle was involved in 9,000 accidents? (farm tractors)
• Which type of motor vehicle was involved in more fatal accidents of all kinds - light trucks or medium/heavy trucks? (light trucks)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Your local office of the American Automobile Association might have for you copies of brochures or activity books on a variety of timely safety topics including school bus safety, bicycle safety, and pedestrian safety. Most brochures are available free of charge. Contact the AAA office in your area.

Check out the school bus safety products available from the National PTA.

Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World® Editor-in-Chief
Copyright © 2002, 2005Education World