Houston Bus Accident Lawyer

History of School Bus Safety

School buses have not always been a standard way of transportation in America. In fact, at the beginning of our country, there was no public transportation available to students. Those stories your grandparents used to tell you about walking to school were true. In the western United States, some children had to walk up to ten miles every day to reach school.

The first “buses” in rural areas were carts borrowed from local farmers to transport children to and from school. As cars were invented and became reliable, buses became a viable option to families across the country. However, with new ideas come consequences, and in this case, there were so many bus accidents involving children that, by 1939, the government called a meeting on school bus safety.

This was the beginning of a long process to get school buses up to good safety standards to keep our children safe. Some of the changes they made included:

• Structural strength guidelines that help prevent loss of life during rollover accidents
• Visibility guidelines to ensure drivers’ ability to see not only in front of the bus, but also the back
• Reflective devices, lamps, and a stop sign attached to the side increase buses’ visibility to other drivers and to protect children as they load or dismount the bus or cross the street
• Installation of emergency exits to make sure that children can escape the bus through windows in care of an emergency

Today buses are much safer than in the past. However, accidents still occur and can affect the millions of children that rely on buses everyday to get to school. If you are interested in more information about bus safety or bus related accidents, contact Williams Kherkher, Houston school bus accident lawyers, at 866-950-9000.