Maryland student transportation director says school buses are safe, after several accidents this year

BALTIMORE — During the first two months of the school year, there have been 13 traffic accidents involving Carroll County school buses, according to Transportation Services Director Michael Hardesty. No accident-related injuries were reported.

“With over 250 to 300 busses on the road every single day, doing 5.2 million miles annually, we see this as an exceptional accident record,” Hardesty said. “That being said, we don’t want to see any accidents.”

Accidents during the first two months of school, from the first day on Sept. 3 to Oct. 31, continue last year’s trend of around 1.5 accidents per week. The system boasts an overall accident rate of 1 to 1.35 preventable accidents with either personal injury or appreciable property damage per million miles traveled, which Hardesty said is an exceptional record by any standard.

Property damage is most often not to the school bus, and personal injuries include minor accident-related scrapes and bruises, Hardesty added.

“School buses are the safest form of ground transportation,” Hardesty said in an email, “up to 70 times safer than automobile travel.”

Of the 13 incidents this year, nine were preventable and four were not, according to Hardesty. Four accidents, two preventable and two non-preventable, each resulted in property damage above $3,000.

Every Carroll bus accident is reviewed by a committee composed of a representative from the transportation office, bus contractors, law enforcement, the school system’s risk manager, and a driver instructor. Hardesty said the Accident Review Committee holds drivers to high standards, set by the Maryland State Department of Education, in determining preventability. Driver retraining is provided when it is deemed necessary.

“It’s a committee of five or six people that review all school bus accidents on a quarterly basis,” Hardesty said, “but every single accident goes through that committee to determine preventability, and a large number are determined to be preventable based upon the strict guidelines that the state of Maryland puts out for determining preventability.”

Carroll County school buses were involved in 55 traffic accidents last school year, according to Hardesty. The number of incidents is consistent with the previous school year, though last year saw fewer preventable accidents than 2022-2023. Fifty-four accidents were reported in 2022-2023, down from 71 the previous school year.

Approximately 240 regular route buses will travel more than 5.2 million miles to provide school transportation this year. Over 97% (25,400) of the county’s 26,100 students ride the bus, according to the school system.

Each of the 297 buses used to transport students in the district is thoroughly inspected each summer, “to ensure safe and reliable service,” according to the system. Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration conducts three additional comprehensive inspections on each bus every school year, in cooperation with the school system’s transportation department. CCPS maintains a fleet of 176 regular education, 64 special education and 53 spare buses, as well as four county-owned spare buses, which are sometimes used for training.

The school system and the sheriff’s office partnered with BusPatrol in 2020 to install cameras on the entire fleet of buses. Vehicles are legally required to stop and give a 20-foot berth to a school bus displaying red lights and an extended arm with a stop sign attached.

Through a memorandum of understanding with the school system, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for reviewing photographic evidence and determining which violations should result in a citation. About 57% (5,103) of motorists caught on camera were issued a citation during the 2023-2024 school year. Last school year, student safety on and around school buses was most at risk between 2 and 4 p.m. and in November.

Since the 2024-2025 school year began, bus-mounted cameras captured 2,690 stop-arm violations, 1,328 of which resulted in a civil violation, as of Nov. 8, according to Cpl. Jon Light of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. Civil violations incur a $250 fine but do not result in points on a driver’s license.

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