Dear Parents,

Columbia Elementary School will be celebrating National School Bus Safety Week on August 24 – 28, 2009. We want to emphasize that riding the big, yellow, school bus is the SAFEST way to get your child to and from school.

Every child should be aware of School Bus Safety regardless of the mode of transportation used to get to and from school. Please take time to review some of the important safety rules (provided on the back side of this letter) with your child.

Numerous studies of the safety of school transportation have been conducted over the past several decades by the most respected safety organizations in the United States.  All of the studies come to the same indisputable conclusion – school buses provide the safest transportation on the Nation’s highways. 

Did you know . . .

· that students are nearly eight times safer riding in a school bus than with their own parents and guardians in cars?

· that the fatality rate for school buses is only 0.2 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) compared to 1.5 fatalities per 100 million VMT for cars?

· that each year approximately 800 school-aged children are killed in motor vehicle crashes during normal school travel hours?

· and that of these 800 deaths, about 2 percent are school bus-related while the remaining 98 percent occur in other motor vehicles or to pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists?

During the week, Kindergarten 1st, and 2nd graders will be invited to meet with one of our very own bus drivers to discuss the safety of bus riders on and off the bus. They will also have a chance to practice loading and unloading a school bus. In addition, they will meet with one of our crossing guards who will discuss the safety of walkers.

Thank you,

Columbia PTA

* Source: National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences

                National Association for Pupil Transportation