National School Bus Safety Week is celebrated the third week of each October. This provides an excellent opportunity to revisit safety protocols with your children and help ensure they remain safe on their way to and from school.
Nationally, more than 25 million children rely on a bus to travel back and forth from school. During the 2020-2021 school year, 1,278,611 of those students were in Pennsylvania alone. If your child is among them this year, talking about bus stop safety is extremely important.
The National Association of Pupil Transportation offers several helpful tips for kids walking to their bus stops, including:
- Place all belongings in a backpack or bag
- Wear bright colors
- Walk in groups and only on pedestrian walkways
While waiting, kids should stay on the sidewalk or off-street areas and avoid playing in or around traffic. While this may seem like common sense, kids, particularly smaller children, may need frequent reminders. If your children are very young, consider accompanying them to the bus stop to help ensure their safety.
Remind your children to board and leave the bus in an orderly fashion – and to make sure they do not cross any streets unless they are at a crosswalk or other approved crossing area. Advise them also to keep phones in their backpack or pocket and to remove headphones when crossing the street to help avoid potential accidents.
School Bus Accidents
Of course, you can teach your kids how to be safe while walking to or waiting for the bus, but even the safest student cannot prevent injury when involved in a bus accident. This includes both accidents involving collisions and those that impact pedestrians.
According to the National Safety Council, 600 children were injured in school bus accidents in 2020. During that same year, one passenger was fatally injured, and six pedestrians lost their lives in school bus accidents. When your child suffers an injury in one of these accidents, you may be entitled to seek compensation.
Kline & Specters is Here to Help
The attorneys at Kline & Specter have a long history of representing children and their families in bus accident lawsuits. We have secured many significant verdicts and settlements for victims of mass transit and school bus accidents, including a $14 million verdict for the 17-year-old victim of a bus/pedestrian accident and $4.3 million for a college freshman who was run over by a bus on the University of Pittsburgh campus, severing his foot and requiring several surgeries.
Our firm has 60 attorneyss, five of whom are also medical doctors, who are here to answer your questions and help you understand your rights. If you need help, reach out to schedule a free consultation. We maintain offices in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Delaware and New York. In addition, we work with trusted partners outside of these areas to represent victims of serious injury throughout the country.