School Buses Are Typically Much Safer Than Cars

School bus fatalities are rare compared to the number of deaths on America's highways

By Noreen O'Donnell and Liz Lane • Published at 12:50 pm on May 17, 2018

Deaths from school bus crashes like the tragedy in New Jersey on Thursday are rare, accounting for less than one percent of the country's yearly motor vehicle fatalities, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

School buses are the most regulated vehicles on the road, and students are 70 times more likely to get to school safely aboard a bus than in a car, according to the administration. The buses are designed to be safer than passenger vehicles.

From 2007 to 2016, there were 320,874 fatal motor vehicle crashes, of which 1,147 or 0.4 percent were school-transportation-related, data from the National Center for Statistics and Analysis show.