| 17,000 Kids Injured On School Buses Each Year | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 6 2006, 12:01 PM (310 Views) | |
| fyi | Nov 6 2006, 12:01 PM Post #1 |
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Click Here For Article 17,000 Kids Hurt on School Buses Each Year By LINDSEY TANNER, AP CHICAGO (Nov. 6) - New national data show school bus-related accidents send 17,000 U.S. children to emergency rooms each year, more than double the number in previous estimates that only included crashes. Watch Video: School Bus Safety Click Here For CNN Video Nearly one-fourth of the accidents occur when children are boarding or leaving school buses, while crashes account for 42 percent, the new research shows. Slips and falls on buses, getting jostled when buses stop or turn suddenly, and injuries from roughhousing are among other ways kids get hurt on school buses, the data found. Injuries range from cuts and sprains to broken bones, but most are not life-threatening and don't require hospitalization. And while the numbers are higher than previously reported, they represent a small fraction of the 23.5 million children who travel on school buses nationwide each year, the researchers said. The researchers said the results provide a strong argument for requiring safety belts on school buses, something industry groups say is unnecessary and is more than many school districts can afford. Safety belts, particularly lap-shoulder belts "could not only prevent injuries related to crashes," they could also keep kids seated "so they're not falling out of their seats when buses make normal turns or brake," said lead author Jennifer McGeehan, a researcher at Columbus Children's Hospital's Center for Injury Research and Policy in Columbus, Ohio. "Our study shows that there needs to be continued vigilance on school bus safety," McGeehan said. The study appears in November's Pediatrics, being released Monday. The research, involving nonfatal injuries treated in emergency rooms, is based on 2001-2003 data from a surveillance system operated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Some 51,100 children up to age 19 were injured during the study period, or about 17,000 annually, the researchers said. Data from the government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration through 2005 show that about 8,000 children are injured each year in school bus crashes but on average fewer than nine are killed - numbers that have remained stable for the last decade or so, the agency said. The tally is based on police reports, and not all injuries resulted in emergency room treatment. In a 2002 report to Congress, NHTSA recommended against lap-only belts in school buses because they can be risky, especially in small children, by restraining them high on the abdomen, potentially causing internal injury in a crash. Five states - California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York - and some districts have implemented varying safety belt requirements for school buses, according to the National Coalition for School Bus Safety, a nonprofit advocacy group. "It's an expensive proposition to outfit school buses with lap-shoulder belts, not just because of the cost of the equipment but because it also reduces seating capacity," said Robin Leeds of the National School Transportation Association, an industry group that represents school bus companies. She said school buses are the safest way for kids to get to school, with or without safety belts. The American Academy of Pediatrics advocates having lap-shoulder belts on all new school buses and supports having adult monitors on buses, too, said Dr. Barbara Frankowski, a Vermont pediatrician and chair of academy's council on school health. However, Frankowski added, "it's kind of unfair to say each individual district has to suck up the cost." 11/06/06 01:29 EST |
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| livoniamom | Nov 6 2006, 12:18 PM Post #2 |
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Principal
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I think adult monitors would be a fabulous idea. More important then seat belts imo. But... probably we would get neither. |
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| Mrs.M | Nov 9 2006, 08:28 AM Post #3 |
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Principal
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Another reason for adult monitors. I know it's not LPS... http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/102906/loc_anger001.shtml Anger management class ordered for student PUBLISHED: October 29, 2006 By Chad Halcom Macomb Daily Staff Writer Assault charges against a Roseville elementary school girl who beat up a classmate on a school bus for getting "all A's" will be dismissed if she attends anger management courses, a judge has ruled. Another juvenile involved in a school bus assault in a separate case in the Anchor Bay school district wasn't as lucky. After a suspension, he was advised not to re-enroll this school year or face expulsion. The Roseville girl, 11, was seen assaulting the fellow student on video tape. She pleaded guilty in August in juvenile court to assault. Her attorney, Cecil St. Pierre said the full video recording shows an earlier confrontation on the bus in which his client may have been provoked or goaded by the other girl. Besides attending anger management classes, the 11-year-old from Alumni Memorial Elementary School was ordered to stay out of trouble in the future. If she does, court officials expect the assault charge to be wiped off her record. "Like most people, before this hearing I didn't even know this was offered. I thought anger management was something for adults," said St. Pierre, the girl's attorney in the juvenile case. "But it's offered through public libraries, and we were told there have been successful cases in treating even 5-year-olds for anger problems." In the Anchor Bay school district case, police and prosecutors have brought charges of aggravated assault against one teenage student and a misdemeanor assault charge against another, based in part on a school bus video tape from May 12 that shows the boys involved in taunting, shoving and later an outright physical attack on 10-year-old Chester Gala. As with the Roseville girl, the Macomb Daily is withholding the names of the two attackers because they are juveniles and defendants in criminal proceedings. Officials expect the criminal case to return to court for a trial Nov. 28. Kenneth Krause, director of secondary education for Anchor Bay, said the alleged primary aggressor is no longer a student in the district after transferring to Detroit before the school year began. His alleged accomplice and Gala both still attend school together, he said. "I believe they've been kept in separate classes, but they do apparently pass in the hall sometimes," he said. "But there hasn't been a single additional incident between them that anyone's made us aware of. It seems to be over with now." The videotape from a security camera mounted inside an Anchor Bay school bus shows two boys, then ages 13 and 14, taunting and teasing Chester Gala on their way home from Anchor Bay Middle School North. After finger-pointing and shoving, the 13-year-old stands up and punches Gala, also a seventh-grader, several times. The exchange between boys, which lasts only for a few seconds, ends when the bus driver orders the 13-year-old to stop. Gala suffered a bloodied nose, a bump and red marks to his face, and complained of head pain. School officials reviewed the videotape and interviewed the boys when they returned to classes the following Monday. Principal Tim Brisbois suspended the 13-year-old for an undisclosed term and the student did not return prior to classes being dismissed for the summer on June 14. Krause said last week that the student's mother, identified in past court proceedings as Patrice DeBose, recently inquired about transferring her son back into the district. But Krause said he advised her against doing that because he would initiate expulsion proceedings against her son if she did so. "I would make a report or recommendation to the board, and they are the ones who would take action on that," he explained. "It's within our guidelines that any student charged with a felony crime can be expelled from the school." |
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| fyi | Nov 21 2006, 12:07 PM Post #4 |
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Principal
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Investigators probe car's role in deadly bus crash POSTED: 11:42 a.m. EST, November 21, 2006 HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (CNN) -- National Transportation Safety Board investigators were in Huntsville on Tuesday, trying to determine what caused a school bus to plunge off a highway overpass the day before. The bus, carrying 43 students from Huntsville's Lee High School, fell 30 feet to the street below the overpass and landed on its front end before flipping over. Three students were killed. (Watch how the crash has left the town in shock -- 1:40 ) The bus driver was either ejected or escaped from the vehicle before it fell, NTSB investigator Debbie Hersman said Tuesday. He was found on the overpass by rescue workers, she said. The initial investigation indicated that a small sedan driven by a fellow high school student veered into the bus' lane, causing the bus to drag along the concrete barrier for more than 100 feet before plunging off the Interstate 565 overpass. Police have interviewed the 17-year-old driver of the orange 1990 Toyota Celica as well as the bus driver. They planned to reinterview the bus driver on Tuesday, Huntsville police spokesman Wendell Johnson said. According to Hersman, the teen driver told police something went wrong with the Celica that caused it to drift into the bus' lane. The NTSB is investigating whether the car struck the bus. The car had two flat tires after the accident, although it was unclear when they went flat and what role that might have played. Photos of the car on the overpass showed damage to the driver's side door and the front passenger side. Police have not decided whether the teen driver will be charged. (Watch officials describe the bus crash -- 1:16 ) Those killed were identified as Christine Collier, 18; Nicole Ford, 17; and Tanesha Hill, age unknown. Collier and Ford both died at the scene. Fifteen students and the bus driver remained hospitalized on Tuesday, including four in critical condition. "Huntsville has never seen an accident like this involving students," said Johnson, the police spokesman. Debate over whether school buses need seat belts Johnson noted that the bus was not equipped with passenger seat belts or air bags. "The students, when they were hurled over the side of I-565 ... they were just tossed around inside the school bus," he said. While most school buses do not have safety belts for students, Hersman stressed that the vehicles are "inherently very safe" and "do very well in most accidents." "We have generally seen less than 10 children a year killed in accidents on school buses, but one of the issues that have come up is whether there should be restraints," the NTSB investigator said at a news conference Monday in Huntsville. There are no federal requirements, but some states have demanded that any new school buses purchased by state governments must be equipped with safety belts. Hersman said the NTSB has not made a decision on whether it supports requiring safety restraints on school buses. However, the board has been pushing the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to carry out tests to determine if safety belts should be among a set of performance standards set by the federal government. Currently there are no national performance standards for school buses. In addition to determining the cause of Monday's fatal school bus accident, Hersman said the NTSB will be looking at whether it could have any effect on school bus safety regulations. "Certainly this accident is a tragedy, and we wish that we were not here, but we will do everything that we can to make sure if there is any safety improvement that can come out of this accident," she said. "That is our purpose." CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report. |
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| amomof2 | Nov 22 2006, 02:56 PM Post #5 |
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Principal
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CANBERRA, Australia - A bus driver who was 13 times over the legal alcohol limit while driving a bus load of schoolchildren had a simple request for police who arrested him for drunken driving, an Australian court heard on Wednesday."Can I finish my run, at least to drop these kids off?" A country court in New South Wales state was told 50-year old David Stack had a blood alcohol level of 0.26, which is 13 times the legal limit for a bus driver, when he was stopped on Nov. 7. The court was told two adult passengers had alerted police after Stack's bus was speeding and swerving across the road. Stack, who pleaded guilty to the drink-driving charge, said he regretted his actions and had apologized to the children on the bus at the time. Now unemployed, Stack will be sentenced in February. |
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| Livonia Voter | Nov 22 2006, 06:17 PM Post #6 |
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Principal
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I wonder if the drivers would have a problem with giving up thier seat belts, since these busses are so safe? |
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CANBERRA, Australia - A bus driver who was 13 times over the legal alcohol limit while driving a bus load of schoolchildren had a simple request for police who arrested him for drunken driving, an Australian court heard on Wednesday.
9:07 AM Jul 11