Bus safety in Australia was benchmarked against Canada and the United States. The analysis highlights that the bus fatality rate in Australia (on a per vehicle-kilometre basis) is about half that in the United States or Canada. While this is encouraging, more disaggregate analyses highlight areas where safety can be improved. Buses experience higher fatality rates than motor vehicles overall, with this primarily due to their incompatibility with passenger vehicles and pedestrians. Compared to other countries, Australia has a substantially worse safety performance with school buses, especially for collisions involving pedestrians. In fact, the fatality rate of school-age pedestrians killed in Australian school bus accidents was more than four times that in the United States and nearly double the Canadian rate. Population-based fatality rates for passengers on urban route or intercity bus services are shown to be upwards of l0 times those in the United States and Canada. When bus passengers and occupants of other vehicles are considered, intercity buses generated fatality rates more than double those in comparable countries. The paper concludes by identifying several research initiatives that would help to provide a foundation for the objective and effective allocation of resources targeted to improve bus safety. (a).
Abstract