Fatal Bus Accidents in Iowa
Some states have had issues when it comes to the introduction of bus safety measures. Despite some restrictions and new traffic regulations, these states continue seeing a relatively high number of accidents and fatalities. Iowa isn’t one of them.
The state has a very low rate of deaths caused by bus crashes in comparison to other states. What’s even better is that the numbers have been going down for the past few years.
Statistics Pertaining to Fatal Bus Crashes
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, however, compiles detailed analyses for every single year. Here is some of the latest data, including incomplete figures for 2017:
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |
---|---|---|---|
Buses involved | 97 | 130 | 37 |
# crashes | 97 | 129 | 35 |
Fatalities | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Injuries | 120 | 92 | 12 |
Figures for earlier periods aren’t that different. In 2013, four buses were involved in fatal crashes that caused the death of six people. In 2014, there was one bus collision and one fatality linked to it.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics also has data about bus crashes in the state. According to the Bureau’s, 2010 report, Iowa had two fatal bus collisions that contributed to 0.4 percent of all the accidents in Iowa. The number of people killed was also two, and the bus fatalities rate as a part of the entire number is 0.5 percent.
Comparison to Total Crash Figures for Iowa
So, how do fatal bus collisions compare to numbers for other vehicles?
In 2016, Iowa had 405 fatal crashes, which unfortunately represents an increase of 89 cases or slightly over 28 percent on an annual basis.
Thus, it’s easy to see that buses don’t necessarily contribute to the large percentage of all the deadly crashes that occurred. Just like in most other parts of the US, passenger cars and motorcycles rank among the vehicles that cause the biggest number of deaths on the road.
Newest and Most Prominent Cases
As you can see from the statistics, there haven’t been that many new bus collisions with a fatal outcome in Iowa. Most of the latest reports pertain to school buses, raising questions about their safety. Iowa is one of the states that don’t require the installation of safety belts in school buses. As a result, such accidents tend to be more serious than the ones involving commercial and public transit vehicles.
School buses, however, aren’t accounted for in the statistics since they are classified as a separate vehicle category.
One of the newest such accidents occurred in Sidney, Iowa, in February 2017. A school bus and a pickup truck crashed into each other. One person was injured seriously and taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital for treatment.