One of scariest things to do as a parent is to put your child on a school bus and hope that they will get to school safely. Although most school bus drivers are very safe, accidents can still happen. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released the latest statistics concerning the safety of school buses in this country. On average, according to the data, approximately 12 children are killed each year as they are walking to school. The data also showed that about 6 children a year are killed in school bus crashes.

This information is nothing new to bus accident lawyers, who have seen an increase in bus accidents over the past years. For example, earlier this year there was an incident when an 18-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were both killed by a semi truck when it collided with their school bus in Nebraska. With the increase of traffic on our nation's roads, these sorts of accidents have become more prevalent over the years.

Another horrible incident occurred in Texas earlier this year when an 11-year-old girl was waiting at the bus stop and was hit by a truck. She never recovered from her injuries. The truck driver involved in the crash claimed that he did not see her. A similar accident also occurred in a rural area of California, when a 7-year-old girl was struck by the driver of her school bus as she waited at the bus stop.

The data released also did not shy away from the fact tat between the years 2001 and 2010 there were approximately 123 fatalities of children under the age of 19. Of these 123 children, about 69% were killed or hit by school buses, 26% were hit when another vehicle collided with their school bus and 5% were killed in accidents while they were getting a ride to school in a vehicle that was acting as a school bus. These statistics have only increased since the school bus program was first put into place.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that overall 1,360 fatalities happened during school transportation-related times and issues. The study shows that out of these 72% were passengers in the vehicle in the accidents and 7% were occupants of the school buses, even though no school bus in the nation requires seat belts for their passengers.

The most dangerous time for children to be riding in the school bus is in the afternoon between the hours of 3 PM and 4 PM. This tends to be because of the amount of traffic on the roads and when children cross the roads they do not look both ways before crossing the street.