A question or thought to ponder:
This refers to the recent school bus/pick-up crash in
the Kingman, KS area.
Click here to read about Kingman crash
If the two boys, who were in the pick up, rode in a school bus,
would this crash have ocurred?
The National Association of State Directors of Pupil
Transportation Services discourages parents of allowing children to
drive or ride a motor
vehicle to and from school.
"Back-to-School" Means Much Greater Safety Risks For Children Who Don't
Ride the School Bus
Albany, NY * Recent incidents in some of the nation's schools have
appropriately focused attention on new ways to improve school safety for
America's children.
Often overlooked in the discussion, however, is the safety of
children as they travel to and from school. A deadly, yet little
noticed trend is increasing as more and more children stop riding school buses, and
instead choose more dangerous alternatives such as private autos, bicycles or even walking,
according to the School Bus Information Council.
"As children across America are headed back-to-school, parents need to
ask themselves, 'is my child getting to school in the safest manner possible?'
If their children aren't riding school buses, the answer is clearly, no," said Mike Martin,
a spokesperson for the School Bus Information Council.
He added, "The number of students who ride the bus to school has dropped off in
recent years. In fact, nationwide, barely over half of students ride school buses.
The rest are using less-safe means of transportation.
It is up to parents, school boards, legislators and the students themselves to promote safety in all
circumstances, and the best place to start is on the bus."
A recent survey conducted by the research firm Wirthlin Worldwide, found that about one-third
of respondents believed that driving their children themselves was the safest way
for children to get to and from school * but
statistics prove otherwise.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA), between 1987 and 1997, the number of school-aged children
killed in passenger cars on a weekday during school hours compared to
children killed while riding a school bus during the same hours was 80
to 1*.
Almost half of those surveyed believed that alternate means of
getting to and from school, whether is was walking, riding a bike, a
student driving a student or an adult driving a student, were safer then riding
a school bus.
"The cruel irony here," said Dr. Dee Alsop, Senior Researcher for Wirthlin
Worldwide, "is that those parents who thought they were doing the most to ensure their
children's transportation safety were actually putting their children at greater risk."
A modern school bus (those manufactured after April 1, 1977)
must meet more Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards than any other vehicle on the road.
The size of the school bus alone gives it an important
advantage in all but the most catastrophic circumstances, since larger, heavier
vehicles provide excellent protection to their occupants.
In addition to school bus design and equipment considerations,
school bus transportation requires numerous other measures to help to
ensure the safety of children who ride a school bus. For example, school
bus drivers must hold a special license, called a Commercial Driver's
License (CDL), that is required by the Federal Highway Administration.
NHTSA has also developed driver training for both new and experienced drivers, as well as maintaining
the School Bus Driver Instructional Program which provides pupil transportation
managers with educational materials to teach core skills to school bus drivers.
When survey respondents were told that school buses were indeed the
safest form of transportation for children traveling to and from school,
35% said school bus transportation had the greatest need of funding over
teacher salaries, repairing existing schools, text books,
enrichment/cultural activities and building new schools.
According to Martin of the School Bus Information Council, "As
school budgets continue to shrink, all too often the first thing cut is
pupil transportation * and the safety ramifications of such cuts are not
fully appreciated.
Parents need to be given all of the safety facts when it comes to
children's safety * whether its their safety at school or their safety in getting to and
from school."
*Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
and "School Bus Safety: Safe Passage for America's Children"
Students from Kingman Elementary and a parochial school receive minor injuries in the crash near Kingman.
By Mike Berry, Nicole Hughes And Jaime Oppenheimer The Wichita Eagle
KINGMAN -- An unusually sunny morning turned into every parent's
nightmare Thursday when a school bus loaded with 29 Kingman-area
children was broadsided by a pickup driven by a teenager at an
intersection 4 miles southwest of town.
Three students -- one on the bus and two in the pickup -- suffered
critical injuries in the crash and were flown to Wichita hospitals. All
had been upgraded to serious condition by Thursday evening.
The bus driver and other students on the bus suffered relatively minor
injuries.
"God had his hand on this one,'' said Gary Tiller, chief executive of
Kingman Community Hospital, where most of the injured were taken. "It
could have been a terrible disaster."
Kaley Thiesmeyer, 12, a sixth-grader at St. Patrick's parochial school
in Kingman and a passenger on the bus, was in serious condition late
Thursday at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus.
The two teens in the pickup -- Derrick Holloway, 16, and his brother,
Justin Olm, 14 -- were at Wesley Medical Center. Derrick, a ninth-grader
at Kingman High School, apparently was taking his brother to Kingman
Elementary before heading to class himself.
Of the 29 children brought to the Kingman hospital, six were admitted
for overnight observation. Tiller said most of the injuries were minor:
bumps, bruises, scratches."They were scared mostly," he said.
Bus driver Don Fischer was treated and released, Tiller said. Fischer's
wife said he was proud of the kids -- some of them St. Patrick's
students, some Kingman Elementary students --who reacted to the crash
as if it were a fire drill.
Law enforcement officers at the scene were amazed that no one was killed
in the violent collision a few minutes before 8 a.m. at an unmarked
intersection on a dirt road.
The impact of the crash crushed the front end of the eastbound,
wine-colored 1988 GMC pickup into an unrecognizable lump of metal. It
also caused the full-size yellow school bus, which was traveling north,
to veer into a
ditch and roll one time, tearing its body from its frame.
The bus came to rest on its wheels in a field, just inside a fence line.
One student may have been thrown from the bus as it overturned,
according to accident investigators.
Neither of the boys in the truck apparently was wearing a seat belt,
said Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Craig Presley. He said one of the
boys was ejected from the pickup and the other had to be freed with a
Jaws of Life rescue tool.
Trooper Jack Veverka said the 1993 model school bus was not equipped
with seat belts.
"I've never seen a bus torn off the chassis like this. ... Without
belts, he kids are like a bunch of marbles rolling around in an orange juice
can," he said.
It was only luck that more serious injuries or fatalities didn't occur, he said.
Sheila Govert had three daughters on the bus and had to fight the urge
to speed as she rushed to Kingman Community Hospital after she took the
heart-stopping phone call.
"I knew the trooper would be telling me to slow down," said Govert, who
was relieved to learn that her children were not seriously hurt.
Anna Govert, a fourth-grader at St. Patrick's who was on the bus, said,
"It's more scary to remember it than actually be in it; everyone was
crying and screaming."
Jessica Henning, 14, an eighth- grader at the parochial school, suffered
a broken arm in the crash. "I didn't know what happened; I thought it
was all a dream," she said.
Bill Orth, principal of Kingman Elementary, made an announcement over
the intercom letting teachers and students know what had happened.
Counselors were available for students. Orth roamed the halls, making
sure kids inside the classroom were coping.
At St. Patrick's, principal Kristin Schmitz said, "We're a Catholic
school, and we're doing a lot of praying.''
Sheila Govert, the mother of three of the children on the bus, said the
lesson to be learned from the tragedy is simple: "Everybody gets in
such a hurry at 8 in the morning. People need to be more careful and slow down. Five
minutes isn't going to make a difference to anyone's schedule."
Larry E. Bluthardt
State Dir. of Pupil Transportation
Kansas State Dept. of Education
120 S.E. 10th St.
Topeka, KS 66612-1182
Phone#(785)296-4567
Fax#(785)296-6659
E-Mail
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