A weird and interesting fact about those long yellow vehicles that carry your children to school is that they do not have seat belts; yet it remains one of the safest modes of transportation for children and adults alike.
There are various types of school buses and there are places that provide school bus rental services. They are classified on the basis of how many people they can seat at once, where the driver’s seat is placed, where the engines would be, tire dimensions and weight. These are a wide range of factors, however they don’t affect the design of the buses a lot.
School buses are very safe for your kids for a lot of reasons. Some of them have been listed below:
Climbing Step
The bus needs to be boarded by climbing up the steps that lead to the bus floor. In case of a school bus, the lowest step is located close to the ground so that little kids can climb aboard easily. They can easily reach the floor of the bus by climbing the next few steps. The low hanging step makes sure they don’t trip and fall.
The seats
The Seats are really comfortable and are placed high above the ground. The considerable amount of gap between the ground and the seats makes sure that the children are less likely to suffer the effects of momentum and inertia in case of an accident, lessening the chances of injuries considerably. This is exactly why the seats don’t even require seat belts. Even if the bus does collide with something, it would not hurt the passengers as the seats are raised, highly cushioned, strong and closely spaced to absorb the force of the sudden jerking motion of the bus.
Laws
A large numbers of laws regulate and ensure the safety of the passengers travelling in an average school bus. These laws have made sure that there isn’t any kind of heavy traffic or speeding vehicles near the buses so that the chances of a collision drop considerably.
Handrails
There are handrails placed near the door of the bus. It is suggested that the child gripsthis tightly while climbing onto and off the bus. It provides easy support to the child and makes sure that they have something to hold on to even if the bus makes any sudden movements. Some modern school buses also have ramps for differently abled children, making accessibility factors less of a concern.
Flashing lights on the bus
The school bus comes equipped with different types of flashing lights to ensure that nearby passing vehicles drivemore carefully and slowly while the bus is picking up and dropping off students.
Safety Training for the Drivers
The drivers chosen to drive school buses are highly trained and quite professional at handling difficult situations. They are provided with additional rules and updated training regimes so that they can ensure the safety of the children while driving or while collecting them from home or from the school.
Bus Design
The interior of the bus is designed in a way that makes it safe during travel or even during a collision. If there is an accident or sudden movements on the road, the forces of collision are redistributed evenly to prevent anyone from getting hurt. Also, another pro is that the windows are protected by strong, horizontal bars so as to prevent smaller kids from falling out the window.
Studies conducted have shown that the probability of school bus related accidents are very low as compared to bike or car related accidents.
