Bus Safety Tips to Teach Your Children
It’s almost back to school season, and with school comes school buses. When proper safety measures are not followed, children riding the school bus could have accidents resulting in unfortunate injuries. Before your children go back to school, you should inform them of the proper safety precautions to take when riding the school bus. Use these tips from Ohio Injury Law to keep your kids safe.
1. Board Safely
Did you know that accidents are most likely to occur in the “danger zone,” or the 10-foot radius outside the bus? This means that boarding safely is just as important as riding safely. First, children should always arrive to the bus early. Running to chase a bus is very likely to lead to injuries. Next, your child should never step beyond the curb until the bus has completely stopped and opened its doors. Finally, remind your children that they should always go immediately to a seat when you get on the bus.
2. Stay Seated
When riding the bus, the most important thing to do is to remain seated. Children often want to get up and talk to their friends, move to another seat, or stand on the seats to talk with those behind them. You should advise your children that this behavior is very unsafe. Staying in one’s seat is the only way to stay safe from injury in case the bus has to stop quickly or gets into an accident. Furthermore, if the bus has seatbelts, your children should always use them.
3. No Rowdy Behavior
Rowdy behavior is another common problem with children riding the bus. Your children should know that throwing things, rough play with friends, running in the bus, or generally being loud and out of control has serious consequences. First, it will distract the driver as he will need to balance driving with disciplining. This can easily lead to an accident. Second, rowdy behavior could lead to falling down and hitting one’s head on a hard surface inside the bus, which could cause injury. Finally, rowdy behavior tends to involve leaving one’s seat, which is unsafe.
4. Stay Out of Windows
If the windows are open on the bus, your children should know that it is very unsafe to stick one’s hands, arms, head, or legs out of the window. First, this behavior can lead to a serious accident if another bus or a truck passes by closely. Second, there is always the risk that your child could get stuck in the window. Finally, this is yet another distraction to the driver.
5. Cross Carefully
Finally, when exiting the bus it is key to always cross carefully. Children should know that crossing in front of the bus is the only way to remain safe, as that is the only place where the driver will be able to see them. Crossing behind the bus is very unsafe and never advisable. Your children should also only ever exit the bus at the correct stop, otherwise they could end up lost or in an unsafe area.