Drew Dixon
Millions of Florida kids rely on school buses each day for transportation to their classrooms. That high volume means the Sunshine State is the second-most dangerous state in the country when it comes to school bus travel.
Brumley Law Firm, which specializes in personal injury practice, partnered with the 1Point21 Interactive data analysis firm on a study looking at 10 years of reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on school bus accidents across America. Analysts found there were 976 fatal school bus accidents in the country between 2013 and 2022.
During that decade, there were 74 school bus accidents that involved fatalities in Florida, resulting in 76 total deaths. That figure put Florida second in the nation when counting fatal school bus accidents.
Florida was second only to Texas, but not by much. Texas recorded 75 such accidents, which resulted in a total of 87 total people being killed. Those two states, of course, are two of the most populated in the country, leading in part to the high totals.
Sun Belt states were prevalent at the top of the list, as Georgia came in third with 60 accidents. Some 65 total people were killed in those crashes.
Florida appeared high on the list despite taking extra steps to secure safe travel on school buses. Florida is one of only eight states in the country that requires seat belts to be installed on school buses.
“Occupants of other vehicles are most likely to die in a school bus accident,” the study concluded. A total of 1,082 people were killed in school bus accidents in America in the 10-year span studied, and about 13,200 people were injured.
Hawaii, New Hampshire and Vermont were the safest states when it came to school bus accidents. Each of those states had two school bus accidents in the decade under review, resulting in two fatalities in each state.
