Celebrate School Bus Safety Week 2019 With These Safety Tips
You might think of October as the month of Halloween, pumpkins, thrills and chills. It is all that, but it’s also the month when schools, bus drivers and parents celebrate School Bus Safety Week.
In honor of the week-long celebration, read on to discover some tips for keeping your children safe on and around their school bus.
School Buses Are the Safest Way to Get to School
More than 20 million children take buses every school day. Despite some historic accidents, statistics repeatedly show that using the school bus is the safest way for kids to get to and from school.
School Bus Safety Week brings together key members of the community to ensure that school buses remain the best, safest and most convenient form of transportation for your children.
What Is School Bus Safety Week?
This yearly, week-long public education problem brings together teachers, school bus drivers and students in a renewed effort to keep school buses safe.
In 2019, National School Bus Safety Week takes place from October 21 through October 25. Each year, the hosts of the program select a winning poster from a student competition to be the year’s theme. The theme of 2019 is “My School Bus, the Safest Form of Student Transportation!” It comes from a winning poster by Shivangi Ojha, an eighth grader in Temple, Texas.
School Bus Safety Week is hosted by the National Association of Pupil Transportation and the National School Transportation Association.
Five Tips to Keep Your Children Safe on the Bus
Most injuries and accidents that happen near school buses are preventable. To keep them safe on and around the bus, teach your children these safety tips.
1. Stay Seated on the Bus
Once you’re on the bus, it’s best to stay in your seat. Instruct your children to keep their arms, heads and personal belongings inside. Warn them about leaning or waving their arms out the window.
2. Get Away From the Bus
Children need to step out of the bus’s danger zone when they get off. Remind them to get away from the bus as quickly as possible. If your children are small, tell them to take five giant steps away from the bus once they’re down the steps.
3. Don’t Chase the Bus
It’s never a good idea to chase the bus if it’s clear that you missed it. In most cases, the driver can’t stop once they’re entering the main road. The same thing applies to chasing the bus after you get off. Tell your child that if they leave something behind on the bus, they can pick it up the next day.
4. Don’t Be a Dangler
Watch out for the long, dangling straps on backpacks, purses and tote bags. They are easy to catch on moving door parts and other pieces of bus machinery. The same is true of hoodie strings, pants drawstrings and shoelaces. Tell your kids to make sure nothing is flying around loose when they get on or off the bus.
5. Look Three Ways, Not Just Two Ways
The old rule was to look both ways before you cross the street. That’s a solid rule, but safety experts now say that you should actually look three ways. The new rule is to look left, right and left again. Teach your children to take this one extra step. It could be a lifesaver.
Stay Safe All Year
School Bus Safety Week happens only once a year, but safety is a priority all year long. If you teach your children to take the right precautions, you can all look forward to a year of safe, happy school bus trips.
