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In Brief:
- Nearly 500,000 U.S. school buses transport 25 million students daily, with most dangers occurring when children board or exit.
- Illegal school bus passings dropped 13% nationwide in 2024-2025, yet 39.3 million violations still occurred, creating serious safety risks.
- Long Island school districts use BusPatrol stop-arm cameras in partnership with law enforcement to capture and penalize reckless drivers.
- Ongoing efforts emphasize awareness, technology, and collaboration to ensure safer roads for students year-round.
The spike in road rage and dangerous driver behavior is on a collision course with our children.
Each school day in the U.S., roughly 500,000 school buses carry more than 25 million students to and from school. While school buses are considered the safest mode of transport for students, the greatest safety risk to schoolchildren isn’t during the actual ride itself, but when they get on and off the bus–due to the indifference of reckless drivers who drive by those buses without regard to the children whose lives they place at risk. On Long Island, the student population is approximately half a million lives, considered to be one of the largest concentrations of this demographic in the nation.
This crisis in road rage comes at a time when a national survey of drivers found that in 2024, 96% of respondents witnessed at least one aggressive driving behavior in the prior six months. In addition, millennials have been identified as the generation most likely to express road rage, with 51% cited in aggressive driving incidents.
The numbers should give every parent pause for thought. During the 2024-2025 school year, there were an estimated 39.3 million illegal school bus passings nationwide, according to a National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) survey. The good news is this recognizes a 13% decline compared with the previous year (45.2 million violations)–and signals a meaningful step forward–but the enormous scale of the problem remains a public safety crisis. These are not just statistics. That is because every time a driver fails to stop for a school bus with its red lights flashing and stop-arm extended, they put a child’s life at risk. Even one injury or fatality is one too many.
As we observe National School Bus Safety Week, it is time we understood that this not some marketing gimmick akin to “Ice Cream Day” or “National Bubble Wrap Day.” It is an effort to focus awareness and education regarding the importance of school bus safety, spotlighting the genuine threat to children posed by drivers disregarding stopped school buses, and reminding motorists and children to follow best safety practices. It also presents an opportunity for collaboration among parents, students, school administrators, teachers, school bus operators, drivers, and law enforcement to further prevent accidents and enhance student safety.
The latest NASDPTS data is evidence that the measures taken by states, municipalities and school districts across the U.S. to tackle the problem of illegal motorist behavior around school buses are working. This includes increasing penalties for violations, authorizing the use of photo evidence for issuing citations, and implementing automated stop-arm enforcement programs.
On Long Island, many school districts have embraced a school bus stop-arm photo enforcement program in partnership with BusPatrol–a leading provider of school bus safety technology–along with local law enforcement. As part of the initiative, participating buses are equipped with BusPatrol’s cameras designed to capture vehicles that illegally pass stopped school buses. The video evidence is then provided to law enforcement for review before a decision is made by them whether to issue summons.
The program continues to have a measured success, helping to reduce illegal passings and holding reckless drivers accountable, ensuring safer roads for every student.
While we are encouraged by the drop in illegal school bus passings here on Long Island and nationwide, the toxic combination of road rage and an indifference to student safety remains at crisis levels. There is so much more work to do. We need widespread adoption of automated school bus safety technology so that drivers understand their behavior will be documented, brought to the attention of law enforcement, and penalties will follow illegal and dangerous behavior that put our children at risk.
October may officially include National School Bus Safety Week, but protecting our children traveling to school doesn’t end when the banners and posters are put away.
Kate McBride is president and CEO of Transportation Safety Planning and Solutions Group in Babylon.
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