Loading and Unloading Zones

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

There were 663 school bus crashes reported in South Carolina in 1995. This is an increase of 29 crashes from 1994 and was the largest total since 1989, when 684 school bus crashes were reported. In the 1995 crashes, three people were killed and 534 others were injured. All three fatalities were sustained by either a driver or a passenger of another vehicle involved in a school bus crash. Those injured included occupants of both the school buses and the other vehicles, as well as pedestrians.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The goal was to develop a way to evaluate the safety of school bus loading and unloading zones, the site of the highest concentration of school bus crashes. By identifying the factors that make a zone safer, local school districts would be able to assess their own loading and unloading zones. The study was to be done by the Clemson University Department of Civil Engineering in cooperation with the City of Greenville Traffic Engineering Division.

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

During the 1995-1996 academic year, a civil engineering graduate student from Clemson University surveyed all 14 of the school bus loading and unloading zones in the City of Greenville. The student was looking for factors that could be assessed in any municipality. The plan of study included a literature search, the development of criteria for a rating system, field visits to school to collect data, development of a numerical safety rating system and analysis of the safety rating system.

RESULTS

The project provided accurate and timely data on school bus crashes and traffic flow for use in developing and implementing a safety and traffic flow improvement program. The result was a safety rating system that is easy to use by school administrators and other concerned parties (e.g., PTAs). Some of the factors included in the rating system are:

• The direction of the traffic (one-way or two-way) and the number of traffic lanes
• The loading procedure (random or organized)
• Whether there is parking on the street
• Whether buses and cars are together or separated
• Whether handicapped buses are separated from other vehicular traffic flow.

The safety rating system developed can be utilized to rate on-campus loading zones of any school district. The system can also be analyzed to determine suitable countermeasures for on-campus loading sites of concern.

The safety rating system has been published. Safety Rating System for School Bus Loading and Unloading Zones is available for distribution from the contact listed below. The report was forwarded to the Director of Pupil Transportation at the South Carolina Department of Education and to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for possible use in other states.

In Greenville, the study identified three schools with loading sites that caused concern. These schools are adjusting their budgets to make the necessary physical changes to increase safety in their loading and unloading zones.