Keep Your Kids Safe All Year
Believe it or not, school buses are the safest way for children to get to and from school. Each year, the bus drivers are required to give school bus safety drills for knowing how to get on or off the bus and the proper behavior during the bus ride. This is an important security measure because what makes the bus unsafe is when your child(ren) or other children on the bus are not following the safety rules for getting on and off the bus or how they are supposed to behave during the ride.
As kids get ready to wait for the bus they get excited because their friends that might not be in their class at school are on the bus. Upon the bus arriving to the house, there are many school bus safety tips that the children should know. It is very important to follow the rules to avoid any traffic-related accidents with the school bus or injuries that might happen while on the bus.
Practice Makes Perfect
Your children, at a young age, might not understand that bus safety rules are a little different than the rules in the family car. By practicing the school bus rules in your own car, you as a parent are encouraging your children to become more aware of what they have to look forward to when school starts in the fall.
Waiting for the School Bus Safety Tips
Many children will wait for the bus to come in their own driveways. Some will have an assigned bus stop or meeting place to get on the bus. Regardless of where children get on the bus, the same safety tips apply.
When waiting for the bus outside your house or at the bus stop, children should not be standing close to the road. Once you see the bus coming, children should not rush towards the bus, but wait for it to come to a complete stop. Once the bus is completely stopped and the doors open, the children should enter the bus using the handrail located on the left side of the doors. If there is more then one child getting on the bus at a time, make sure to not push or shove while getting on
How Children Should Behave On the Bus
Children on the bus should be respectful of the safety rules that are given because they are there to protect the children. No parent wants to get a call saying that their child was injured on the bus or when getting off the bus. If a child is hurt on the bus, the injury should be report as soon as possible to the bus driver.
Once the children are on the bus, they should find a seat as fast as possible. When looking for a seat on the bus, a child should look for a seat that either is empty or has one other person sitting it in. As a safety precaution, two people sitting in a seat is good. Three people sitting in the same seat is the maximum number allowed. If there are more then three in the seat, then that could become dangerous.
If your child is sitting in a seat and their friend is sitting a few seats away, your child should not be screaming or talking loud. Instead they should talk the same way to their friends on the bus that they would talk in their classroom. To avoid people getting hurt on the bus, your children should not be hanging out in the aisle or have their backpacks in the aisle. There will be times that your children will have to bring either musical instruments or sports equipment on the bus. If that ever happens, they should find an empty seat for the large items and themselves.
When your child has either reached school or their house, they should remain seated in the seat until the bus comes to a complete stop. Once the bus is completely stopped, the children can carefully and quickly gather their items and make their way to the front of the bus in a single file line. When they reach the stairs of the bus, they should use the handrail located to the right side of them. The reason for that is because you never know if the stairs are slippery or if they are wet from the weather.
Outside The School Bus Safety Tips
Once your child has gathered their items carefully, quickly, and made it off the bus at their assigned bus stop, there are a few things that you should never do. These school bus safety tips are instructed to keep all the children safe.
First, if your child has noticed once they are off the bus that they forgot something, they should never turn around and walk back to the bus to go get it. The child should go straight to a parent at their house. If it is something that the child needs for homework, the parent can call the bus garage and they can go and get it. Otherwise, the item can wait until the next school day. The bus drivers do a walk through of the bus to clean it for the next day.
If your child is one of the many children that have to cross the street in front of the bus, the bus driver will instruct your child how far out from the bus they should stand. Many time,s a bus driver will tell your child to walk up to their mailbox and other times if the mailbox is not available, the child should stand ten steps from the front of the bus. Once your child is standing in the stop where they will cross from, they need to look both ways (left, right and then left again) and make eye contact with the bus driver who will have a special hand signal for crossing. If the bus driver takes a little longer to have you cross the street, don’t cross on your own, as the bus driver might see a vehicle ahead that you don’t see and wants to make sure it stops. It could also be because there is something going on inside the bus that has distracted the driver. No matter how old you are or if the bus driver doesn’t know you have to cross because you did not tell them, don’t cross behind the bus. That is completely unsafe for not only you but for any other cars that are behind the bus.
In Conclusion
Knowing the bus rules for your assigned school bus makes it easier for you to be able to ride just about any other bus. Following inside and outside bus rules can save many injuries from happening and allow the bus driver to get the children home to their parents safe and sound. Be smart when riding the bus and don’t horse around.
