Study: New York Suffers One of the Highest Fatal Bus Crash Rates in America

An uncomfortable new study might have you questioning if your child's school bus is safe.

High school was the only time in my life when I was in a school bus crash.

The first happened my freshman year when a deer darted in front of our bus. Our driver slammed the brakes to miss it and, during that, the person following too closely behind us rammed us from the back.

I still remember the whiplash from that memorable event.

The second, and thankfully last, happened a few years later and was a little more significant than the first. Thankfully, I wasn't injured, unlike a few unlucky others.

I couldn't help but think about both incidents when I came across a new study that purported to have identified the states with the most fatal bus crashes in America.

Shockingly, the study ranked New York high on the list.

The study comes from 1Point21 Interactive and Brumley Law Firm. The pair worked together to analyze all school bus crash data in the United States between the years 2013 and 2022.

Between that period of time, the United States reportedly suffered 976 fatal school bus crashes, which injured 132,000 individuals and resulted in 1,082 deaths.

When looking at accidents in New York, the state reported 59 fatal school bus crashes that resulted in 59 deaths. That number is the fourth highest in the entire country.

Only Georgia, Florida, and first place Texas reported more fatalities between 2013 and 2022.

The study did not include where these fatal crashes occurred, so it was not mentioned how many of these accidents happened in Oneida, Herkimer, Madison, and the surrounding CNY counties.

However, one New York county was found to have the highest crash rate in America. That was Kings County, which tied with Texas' Harris County with 11 crashes each.

New York has experienced its fair share of tragedies, most recently being the horrific accident that happened in September 2023.

Read More: 2 Dead, Multiple NY Students Injured in Fatal Bus Crash

The study, which relied on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and its Fatality Analysis Reporting System, also looked into individual state safety laws.

New York law mandates all school buses made after 1987 to have seat belts. However, individual school districts are allowed to decide whether wearing seatbelts is enforced on school buses.

New York is also among a handful of states that have school bus stop-arm camera laws to crack down on illegal passing. This, unfortunately, is a major problem in the Mohawk Valley.

Read More: Upstate NY Drivers Warned Against Passing Stopped School Buses

The study did not include statistics of students being hit by passing cars. However, the Oneida County Sheriff's Office recently released a report detailing the number of cars found blowing past school bus stop signs.

The highest number of citations went to Whitesboro, with 282 issued during the 2023-2024 school year. New Hartford followed with 178 citations while 97 citations were written in Westmoreland.

In total, 852 violations were issued across Oneida County during that school year.

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