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By James Kraemer.
Presenting this story is not an endorsement by 2safeschools membership 'for' or 'against' this issue. Kraemer's commentary is provided for educational and informational purposes only.
©2004, by 2safeschools.org, all rights reserved. This specific story, "Evacuation Drills: An important step toward keeping kids safe," may be published, broadcasted, edited for brevity, punctuation and grammar errors and redistributed, provided credit and a link to 2safeschools is appropriately captioned. Editor's should send notice of use to 2safeschools Permissions.

Evacuation Drills: An important step toward keeping kids safe

The Nation - School bus evacuation drills have been a part of riding the school bus in some areas for nearly as long as school buses have been around. School Bus Safety Week, organized in California by Dick Fischer, became a national program in 1970.

As the industry evolved training information on emergency evacuation from school buses were developed by the federal government and the pupil transportation industry.

Steps To Safety Students gather to learn steps to school bus safety - Vigo County School Corporation Terre Haute, Indiana. (VCSC Photos) In 1972 the NHTSA published "Pupil Transportation Safety," (Standard No. 17), requiring students that ride the school buses to participate in emergency evacuation drills twice per school year. This requirement was later changed to "guidelines" and recommendations. An e-comment to 2safeschools from Susan Kirinich, NHTSA Pedestrian and School Transportation Programs wrote, "School bus evacuation drills became much more common after a couple of terrible crashes in the 1980s where children died because they couldn't get out of a burning bus or one that had overturned in water." According to Kirinich, "evacuation drills are determined by state and local regulations. There is no federal requirement." THE NUMBER #1 REASON SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS QUIT 2SAFESCHOOLS POLL 975 votes - Rev: 10/21/04 Maltreatment 61% Poor Pay 29% Retired/Health 3% Moved 1% Other Reasons 5% Non-members click on GUEST at login to vote VOTE Some schools devote a few hours per day for an entire week to safety at school and on the school bus. A few have various versions of the "Safety Town," a program started in 1937 by Mansfield (Ohio) Police Officer Frend C. Boals and Mrs. Ruth Robbins-Idle, where kids learn about home, school, school bus and other community safety training. School classes often include creative bus safety training, videos and class projects. Yet, at many schools student bus evacuation training may be less than 20 minutes once or twice a year. These schools often simply meet minimum state standards and leave it at that. No requirement - evacuation traning may be ignored. "A December 2003 survey of State Directors of Transportation [reported] only 15 States require that students who ride buses for extracurricular functions receive pretrip safety information and only 9 States require physical demonstration of the operation of emergency exits." Source: NTSB Safety Recommendation H-04-06 (This Report Continues - Click here for Page Two)

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Adult To Adult The School Bus - Safety Ignored In some countries there are no enforced transportation standards, other than what nature provides. Death is a common standard nature provides. Click here for story.	Virus Alerts Mcafee Updates & More Virus Alerts Recently Updated Threats Virus Hoaxes AVERT Home Page Trend Micro Free Virus Scan