Making School Bus Transport Safer For Our Students

Barbara DiGirolamo, M.Ed., CPSTI

Pedestrian injuries, including by children going to school, are an important national safety issue. For children getting off a school bus, Massachusetts state law mandates cars must stop and can’t pass a school bus when it is stopped with the stop sign out as it is dropping children off. In one Massachusetts city, multiple cars were observed violating this law. However, the current Massachusetts law requires police to physically see each driver who is passing the bus to issue a citation for this offense. As a result, incidents have occurred where siblings were hit by a car, a crossing guard and student on bike were hit while on the crosswalk during a red light, as well as multiple daily “near misses.” The objective of this program description is to describe an advocacy program, which advanced passage of a law to improve the safety of children walking from school buses with the installation of cameras on buses to record motor vehicles violating the law mandating them to stop when a school bus is stopped for student drop-off.

This child pedestrian safety program was focused on gathering data on motor vehicle violations related to school buses and on advancing legislation to install cameras on school buses to decrease the risk of child pedestrian injury when leaving the school bus. A Safety Task Force in the city was convened, which was overseen by the Mayor and included parents, school staff, local police, injury prevention experts, and the health board. Activities of the Safety Task Force included: 1) speaking to students in local schools about pedestrian safety; 2) distributing an informational newsletter for parents; 3) attending local events and fairs to get signatures in support of the law change; and 4) obtaining broad media coverage from local news channels. The Safety Task Force also obtained a grant to install bus cameras to record motor vehicles passing stopped buses to obtain data and evidence about these violations.

In September 2024, there were 10 cameras added to the city’s 33 bus fleet. From September 2024- May 2025, over 3,000 cars were recorded passing stopped school buses dropping off children for school, for an estimated 10,000 violations. Since the law stated police have to witness these violations in person, these individuals couldn’t be ticketed. However, this evidence was then used with legislators to advocate for changes in the state law. In January 2025 the Massachusetts Governor signed into law, legislation allowing any city or town to install cameras on school buses, and use these video recordings to mail citations directly to the vehicle owners driving past stopped school buses.

Passing a new child safety law in a state is challenging, and often, takes years of work. Partnering with allied organizations, including AAA, Safe Routes to School, Injury Free, Safe Kids, and ThinkFirst are great ways to leverage your argument. Partnerships, evidence, and advocacy are essential for policy changes to improve child pedestrian safety.

1. Describe strategies for working with your government to pass better laws protecting our youth.
2. Analyze approached to obtain data and evidence to support your proposed law changes
3. Examine how to build partnerships with other community organizations, police and elected officials to gain support in your proposed initiatives