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Children are far more risk traveling to school and in private cars - especially if a teen driver is involved - than in school buses, according to a new report by the National Academies’ Transportation Research. Hiking and biking by students at greater risk than traveling by school bus. The national data to assess the risks of different modes of school transport should be provided to parents to help students and government officials and locally, more informed decisions on security, said the committee that wrote the report.

“In evaluating each state, school district and private school must have its own situation and circumstances,” said Commission Chairman H. Douglas Robertson, Director, Highway Safety Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “The goal is to travel to the safety of all children, improve schools and provide information to communities so they can make informed choices that balance their needs and resources.”

Each year about 800 children of school age in motor vehicle crashes during school travel hours killed - during weekday morning and months at school in the afternoon - for about 14 per cent of deaths children in 5600 experienced road nation. Of these 800 deaths, only 2 percent of school buses and, while 74 percent occur in passenger cars and 22 percent are the result of pedestrian or bicycle accidents. More than half of all deaths of children 5-18 years occur during school hours to travel when a teenager drives.

When students are injured or killed in crashes in which school buses to travel to school, the connection seems obvious, but when such accidents while traveling to school and other modes of transport occur, the association is often not the case. Congress asked the National Research Council, the issues of security of all modes, so that accurate comparison could be studied.

The report six modes. In the evaluation, the buses, the committee saw with school buses and public transport buses and coaches. Cars were divided into two categories, led by individuals 19 years or more and driven by operators under age 19, most of the students. Data on pedestrians and cyclists on the road to school and study.

The dramatic difference in risk between the modes of transport at the national level suggests that more can be done to manage and reduce risks, the commission said. School districts should travel by modes of transportation safer and easier to work simultaneously with others, less certain to improve. For example, walking and cycling can be made safer by more cycling by improving sidewalks and protection at level crossings and construction. A dialogue between parents, schools and other organizations should also be noted, the promotion of cooperation to provide methods for students to encourage, by all modes of transport.

Journey To identify risks from school, the committee has developed a framework for risk management. This framework should be using the tools to make informed decisions regarding the location of schools, which must be recorded variations in the level of student parking spaces, or changes in the field of maintenance of school buses. For example, increasing the distance that students must live from school to qualify for school bus service to save money, but it also moves the way children are less safe travel. Alternatively, it could reduce the bus service school provision for children attending school through extracurricular activities, risks of injury and death significantly. These examples are based on national averages and do not reflect the variations that exist at local or district-level school.

More research and evaluation are needed to help guide local decision makers to go to school to reduce the risks, “said Committee. Data limitations also pose problems. Currently, a lack of uniformity in local and state level data for risk analysis hampered in individual school districts. National data provide useful information, but could be improved using uniform definitions. Before collecting new data, but the cost-effectiveness should be tested this.