Road Safety

At the request of the Australian Transport Council, ARRB Transport Research was commissioned by Austroads in 1999 to undertake a review of school bus safety in Australia. This study reviewed current practice and research in relation to school bus safety and identified new or proven safety measures that may be used as part of a national approach to school bus safety. The key outcome of the study was the development of a draft National School Bus Safety Action Plan, which sought to provide a set of short, medium and long term measures designed to reduce the incidence and severity of crashes involving school children that were associated with bus travel. The current study reviewed the draft National School Bus Safety Action Plan based on an assessment of updated crash analyses, research findings and initiatives in place across Australian jurisdictions. The crash analysis confirmed the findings of the original report and highlighted that children are at greatest risk of injury or death when attempting to cross the road after alighting the bus. The study reported on initiatives being implemented by jurisdictions to improve the safety of school bus travel. Further, the study included a review of actions in the Action Plan with the aim of identifying succinct, measurable actions that address those areas most likely to yield safety benefits. A system for prioritising these actions, based on the extent to which they address key contributing crash factors, their effectiveness, resource needs and ease of implementation, was developed. Based on this ranking system, the current report presents a Revised Action Plan which aims to assist jurisdictions to give priority to those measures which address the most common cause of fatalities where the greatest gains can be made in school bus safety for children.