It doesn't matter how safe the driver drives or how bright they are stuff happens. When I rode the bus we went down such a bumpy road that some bumps actually made you fly out of your seat. Oh and don't say well the driver should've missed the bumps because the whole road was one big bump and this was at 7am when it was snowing. One kid got a concussion. He was already special so no harm done but still.
In high school an SUV t-boned my bus in the rear wheel, which is about where I was sitting. She was probably doing about 40, and got out of the car with what I assumed was a broken nose. We barely felt the bus shake. ************* are sturdy.
I asked my old bus driver why this is, he said it's because the back of the seats act as a shield for the people in back of them. Best answer I've gotten on this topic
My school and the bus system they contracted exploited the fact that there weren't seat belts. There was nothing to make sure that the number of kids on the bus actually matched the "max capacity" number painted on the front.
They'd cram as many of us onto one bus as they could to save money rather than running a second transfer bus between two towns Rural area so we had 3 towns come together to make two school buildings. Each had an elementary while one had a jr high and the other site had the high school.. Kids were kneeling in the aisle and sitting on each other all the time. If we didn't, we'd get yelled at to hurry up and sit down.