This monograph presents a statisticalsummary of road fatalities in 1994amongst children travelling to and fromprimary or secondary school in Australia.There were 20 such fatalities in 1994, thelatest year for which complete data areavailable. This represents about one inevery ten road deaths amongst childrenaged between 5 and 17 (196 deaths).

Every year FORS constructs a database ofAustralian fatal road crashes based oncomprehensive crash accounts providedby coroners. This database provides thebasis for a detailed understanding of thecauses of severe road crashes to guide thedevelopment of road safety countermeasures.

In the case of small fatality groups, suchas the subject of this monograph, thedatabase provides a mechanism foridentifying recurring crash patterns.Many of these patterns might otherwiseremain hidden from interested parties,such as coroners, who may encounter justa handful of cases of any given type.

The documentation obtained fromcoroners routinely includes informationabout the purpose of the travel beingundertaken at the time of the crash,including details of any travel to and fromschool. This information is not availablefor lower severity crashes. Based,however, on the stated date and time ofsuch crashes, it is estimated that 400school children were admitted to hospitalin 1994 from road trauma sustainedduring the journey to or from school.

Table 1 describes the travel modes of the20 children killed whilst travelling to orfrom school in 1994. It shows that:

• Fourteen of the deaths occurred duringpedestrian activity, more than onequarter of all pedestrian deaths in thatage group. These comprised:

- 8 children crossing the road afterleaving school buses,

- one child crossing the road afterleaving a public bus,

- one child crossing the road afterleaving a car, and

- 4 children walking to or fromschool.

• Five of the deaths involved cyclists,about one in five of all cyclist deathsin that age group.

• One death occured to a child alightingfrom a bus.

Table 1 also shows that most of thedeaths during the journey to and fromschool involved primary school children(15). This represents almost one quarterof all road deaths amongst children ofprimary school age.

The main fatality groups are summarisedbelow.

Children crossing theroad after leavingbusesTable 2 summarises the characteristics ofthe nine crashes involving childrencrossing the road after leaving buses.The majority of them involved aprimary school child on the journeyhome from school alighting from aschool bus beside a high-speed ruralroad and crossing the road unaccom-panied by an adult. One crash involveda child who had alighted from a publicbus.

The children involved in these crasheshad a median age of 9 years.

The event sometimes involved the childbeing hit by a vehicle on the far side ofthe carriageway after the child attemptedto cross from behind the bus. On otheroccasions it involved the child being hitby the bus or another vehicle on the nearside of the carriageway after the childattempted to cross from in front of thebus.

Only one of the fatalities occurred duringthe journey to school. This involved a

ROAD FATALITIES AMONGSTCHILDREN TRAVELLING TO AND FROMSCHOOL IN AUSTRALIA

Monograph 26, 1999

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Table 1 Number of road deaths amongst children aged 5 to 17, by mode oftravel, Australia 1994

Mode Deaths on All road % of all of journey deaths of road deaths travel to/from 5-17 year of 5-17

school olds year olds

Pedestrians

Crossing road after leaving school bus 8

Crossing road after leaving public bus 1

Crossing road after leaving car 1

Walking to or from school 4

All pedestrian activity 14 51 27%

Cyclists 5 24 21%

Vehicle occupants 1 121 1%

All modes of travel

Amongst children of primary school age 15 62 24%

Amongst children of high school age 5 134 4%

All children 20 196 10%

Monograph 26, 1999

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child alighting temporarily from the busen route to school.

Apart from the high-speed rural nature ofthe roads (8 of the 9 fatalities occured inspeed zones above 60 km/h), there wasgenerally nothing very difficult about theconditions that prevailed when thesecrashes occurred. The crashes commonlyoccurred in fine weather on dry, levelroads having a single lane for eachdirection of travel.

Responsibility for the crash was attributedto the child’s error in all cases,compounded by illegal vehicle speed intwo instances. The deaths were notrestricted to boys, who tend to outnumbergirls in most types of road crashinvolvement.

Was 1994 atypical? An earlier FORSmonograph(1) identified six deaths in 1992amongst children crossing the road afterleaving school buses. Four of thosedeaths occurred on high-speed ruralroads.

Children walking toor from schoolTable 3 summarises the characteristics ofthe four fatal crashes in 1994 thatinvolved children walking to or fromschool.

These crashes all occurred in urban areas.In none of the cases was the childaccompanied by an adult.

Three of the deaths occurred during thejourney home from school. Earlier FORSwork(1) has identified that pedestriandeaths during the journey home fromschool tend to outnumber by 4 to 1 thoseduring the journey to school. Thechildren involved in these crashes had amedian age of 6.5 years. It might beconjectured that in their early years ofschooling children are commonlydropped off at school but that less securearrangements sometimes exist for thejourney home. It might also be thatchildren are less attentive and moredistracted with friends during the journeyhome.

There was nothing very difficult about theconditions that prevailed when thesecrashes occurred. The crashes commonlyoccurred in fine weather on dry, level,straight roads in residential areas having asingle lane for each direction of travel.All four crashes occured in 60 km/hzones.

With the exception of the death of onechild on a pedestrian crossing,responsibility for each crash wasattributed to the child’s error. Three ofthe four children involved in thesecrashes were girls.

Children cycling to orfrom schoolTable 4 summarises the characteristics ofthe five fatal crashes in 1994 that

involved children cycling to or fromschool.

These crashes tended to involve olderboys and girls than other fatal crasheswith children journeying to or fromschool. The median age of the cyclists inthe crashes was 11 years.

Again, there was nothing very difficultabout the conditions that prevailed whenthese crashes occurred. The crashescommonly occurred in fine weather ondry, level, straight, low-speed roads.

Responsibility for the crash was attributedsolely to the child’s error in four casesand jointly between the cyclist and aspeeding driver in one case.

Gender

Males 5

Females 4

Median age 9.0 years

Accompanied by adult

No 9

Yes 0

Nature of journey

Travelling home 8

Travelling to school 1

Crash location

Rural location 8

Urban location 1

Speed limit at crash site

110 km/h 1

100 km/h 3

90 km/h 1

80 km/h 3

60 km/h 1

Location of colliding vehicle

Far side of road 5

Near side, school bus 2

Near side, other vehicle 2

Road configuration

Undivided, with single lane 9

each way

Weather and road conditions

Fine, with dry road 8

Raining or wet road 1

Vertical road alignment

Level or gentle slope 8

Unstated alignment 1

Horizontal road alignment

Straight 5

Curved or near a curve 4

Responsibility for crash

No responsibility of driver 7

Part responsibility of driver 2

(speeding)

Table 2 Characteristics of nine fatal crashes involving children aged 5 to 17killed whilst crossing the road after leaving a bus, Australia 1994

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Summary

• In 1994, there were 20 fatalitiesamongst children travelling to or fromschool in Australia.

• Some 400 others are estimated to havebeen hospitalised.

• Four of the 20 deaths occurred duringthe journey to school.

• Those killed comprised:

- nine children crossing the road afterleaving buses,

- one child crossing the road afterleaving a car,

- four children walking to or fromschool,

- five cyclists, and

- one child alighting from a bus.

• The bus-related deaths generallyinvolved a primary school child on thejourney home from school alightingfrom a school bus beside a high-speedrural road and crossing the roadunaccompanied by an adult.

• The deaths of children walking to orfrom school all occurred in urbanareas. They generally involvedchildren in their early years of primaryschool and generally occurred on thejourney home rather than the journeyto school.

• The crashes were rarely characterisedby difficult prevailing conditions.

• Responsibility for the crash wasgenerally attributed to the child’serror.

Table 3 Characteristics of four fatalcrashes involving pedestrians aged 5to 17 killed whilst walking to or fromschool, Australia 1994

Gender

Males 1Females 3

Median age 6.5 years

Accompanied by adult

Yes 0No 4

Nature of journey

Travelling home 3Travelling to school 1

Crash location

Urban residential location 3Urban parkland location 1

Speed limit at crash site

60 km/h 4Other 0

Location of collision

On pedestrian crossing 1On near side of road 3At far side of road 0

Road configuration

Undivided, with single lane 3each way

Undivided, with two lanes 1each way

Weather and road conditions

Fine, with dry road 3Raining 1

Vertical road alignment

Level or gentle slope 3Crest 1

Horizontal road alignment

Straight 3Curved 1

Responsibility for crash

No responsibility of driver 3Sole responsibility of driver 1

Table 4 Characteristics of five fatal

crashes involving children aged 5 to

17 killed whilst cycling to or from

school, Australia 1994

Gender

Males 3

Females 2

Median age 11.0 years

Nature of journey

Travelling home 3

Travelling to school 2

Crash location

Urban residential/ commercial 3

location

Urban residential location 1

Rural location 1

Speed limit at crash site

100 km/h 1

60 km/h 4

Type of event

Failure to give way 2

at intersection

Illegal entry from footpath 2

Fall from cycle into path 1

of vehicle

Weather and road conditions

Fine, with dry road 5

Raining or wet road 0

Vertical road alignment

Level or gentle slope 5

Other alignment 0

Horizontal road alignment

Straight, at intersection 4

Straight, mid block 1

Curved or near curve 0

Responsibility for crash

Sole responsibility of cyclist 4

Cyclist and driver of a 1

speeding vehicle

Monograph 26, 1999

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Reducing thehazards associatedwith school buses

The material presented here suggests arecurring road safety issue with the set-down arrangements from school buses onrural roads.

It appears that rural school bus systemsare safely depositing children at schoolbut are dealing much less well with thereturn journey.

On the face of it, this road safety issueshould be relatively easy to addresscompared, for example, with the manifestdifficulties associated with reducingfatalities that stem from deviant road use.

While this is an issue for the attention ofroad safety authorities, it is also an issuefor those responsible for the day-to-daywellbeing of children. The role of parentsand guardians is critical to theachievement of safer roads for children.

In particular, parents, schools, localgovernment and local bus companieswithin each rural community could worktogether towards providing children withsafe crossing after alighting from buses intheir areas. The first step is for all to beaware of the potential hazard and thesecond step is to put in place action toremove that hazard.

There is also a role here for locally-basedprograms to educate school children andthe rest of the community about the issue.

A number of measures which mightaugment local initiatives have beenproposed by the Australian Council ofState School Organisations (see inset).

RecentDevelopmentsThe provision of a detailed picture forsubsequent years, such as we have for1994, must await the lengthy process ofassembling similar records. Counts ofchild road casualties during school traveltimes suggest, however, a reduction ofdeath and injury amongst children

travelling to and from school as a generalcategory. An estimated 7 deaths occurredamong child pedestrians in 1997 duringschool travel times, compared to 14 in1994 (with all deaths, including cyclistsand vehicle occupants, falling to 11),while hospitalisations of childrentravelling to and from school declined toabout 350 in 1997 from about 400 in1994.

Without further data it is not possible tocomment on the causes or significance ofthis decline, but it might be noted that anumber of measures affecting childpedestrian and cyclist safety have beenimplemented (at least in somejurisdictions) since 1994, including:

• more intensive enforcement of speed

limits,

• reduced speed limits in some

residential zones,

• progressive implementation of "safe

routes to school" programs, including

traffic engineering treatments, and

• flashing lights to identify school

buses setting down passengers, with

reduced speed limits when lights are

operating.

The December 1998 meeting of theAustralian Transport Council (ATC) alsodirected Austroads to prepare a report onschool bus safety in all jurisdictions to thenext meeting of ATC.

References:(1) Pedestrian casualties: children inearly school years. Federal Office ofRoad Safety, Monograph 8, 1996.

(2) Australian Council of State SchoolOrganisations, policy document 1997.

School bus measures proposed bythe Australian Council of StateSchool Organisations(2) include:

• School buses to be required tocarry distinctive identificationthat would provide a clearwarning to other road users.

• All new buses to be requireddisplay flashing amber lightsthat would operate inconjunction with the doorcontrol to signify a legalrequirement that othervehicles were prohibited frompassing at more than 25 km/h.

• Measures to be implementedto encourage retro-fitting ofthis system to existing buses.

• School buses to be fitted withauxiliary mirrors to improvethe bus driver’s vision acrossthe front of the bus to helpprevent students fromcrossing there.

• School buses to be required tocarry an adult supervisorother than the driver.

• The school bus route todisplay marked areas out ofwhich a school bus must havepassed before students crossthe road.

• School buses to be limited tocarrying one person to eachsingle seat and no childrenstanding.

• School bus drivers to besubject to annual healthchecks and trained in basiclife support, and school busesplying remote areas to befitted with a two-way radio.