Millar Law Firm’s analysis of a decade of federal crash data shifts attention toward pedestrian crossings, surrounding traffic and the gaps in protection along students’ routes.
The most revealing number in a national study of school transportation deaths may be the share of children who were not riding in a school vehicle when they died.
Of the 204 children age 18 and younger killed in school-transportation-related crashes between 2015 and 2024, 165 were pedestrians, cyclists, occupants of other vehicles or other nonoccupants. That represents approximately 81% of the child deaths recorded during the decade.
The figures, examined in Millar Law Firm’s America’s School Transportation & School-Zone Risk Index, put the streets surrounding the school commute at the center of the safety discussion. While school transportation vehicles accounted for 39 child occupant deaths, almost twice as many children died as pedestrians.
The study analyzed federal fatal-crash records across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Its findings show how a relatively protected bus journey can connect with a more exposed walk, crossing or roadside wait.
The child death toll was divided almost equally between pedestrians and other vehicles
Children traveling in other vehicles represented the largest group of school-age fatalities, narrowly exceeding the pedestrian total.
| Child’s position in the crash | Deaths, 2015–2024 | Share of 204 child deaths |
|---|---|---|
| Occupant of another vehicle | 78 | 38.2% |
| Pedestrian | 77 | 37.7% |
| Occupant of a school transportation vehicle | 39 | 19.1% |
| Pedalcyclist | 7 | 3.4% |
| Other nonoccupant | 3 | 1.5% |
Percentages calculated from the counts reported in the study; rounding may affect totals.
Together, pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles accounted for 155 deaths, or approximately 76% of the school-age total.
Across all ages, the toll was substantially larger. The study reports 962 fatal school-transportation-related crashes and 1,069 deaths during the decade, averaging about 107 deaths annually. Occupants of other vehicles accounted for 70% of those killed, compared with 15% for pedestrians and 11% for drivers and passengers in school transportation vehicles.
Those figures describe crashes associated with school transportation. They should not be interpreted as deaths occurring exclusively aboard buses, exclusively among students or exclusively within marked school zones.
Most child pedestrian deaths occurred away from intersections
The location of pedestrian deaths adds another dimension to the findings.
According to the study, 66% of school-age pedestrian deaths in school-transportation-related crashes occurred outside intersections. Another 27% occurred at intersections, while the remaining locations could not be determined.
That distribution directs attention toward the stretches of roadway between formal crossing points: the shoulder approaching a bus stop, the street outside a home or the space surrounding a loading location.
Younger children were particularly prominent in the pedestrian figures. More than half of the 77 school-age pedestrian deaths involved children ages 5 through 10.
The vehicle striking a child was also frequently part of the school transportation system. Of those 77 pedestrian deaths, 44 involved a child struck by a school bus or another vehicle operating as one—approximately 57%.
The numbers broaden the operational questions raised by the study:
- Where do students stand while waiting for a bus?
- Does reaching the stop require crossing traffic?
- Can drivers see children throughout boarding and departure?
- Are turning movements bringing buses into conflict with walking routes?
These questions apply to bus operations as well as to motorists traveling nearby.
Illegal passing declined, but the estimated volume remained enormous
The study also incorporates a national survey showing that stopped buses continue to face widespread illegal passing.
In the 2026 National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services survey, 101,334 bus drivers across 39 states and the District of Columbia reported 56,024 illegal passings during one observation day in the 2025–26 school year.
The survey extrapolated that snapshot to more than 213,800 violations on a typical school day and more than 38.4 million over a 180-day school year.
| School year | Estimated illegal bus passings |
|---|---|
| 2023–24 | 45.2 million |
| 2024–25 | 39.3 million |
| 2025–26 | 38.4 million |
The latest estimate was approximately 2.3% below the preceding year and about 15% below the 2023–24 figure.
One detail, however, moved against that improvement: 3.45% of the violations recorded in the 2026 survey occurred on the right side of the bus, the highest proportion in the survey’s history. That is generally the side students use to enter and leave.
The estimates are based on survey participation and extrapolation, rather than a complete national count. Differences in reporting and participation also limit direct comparisons between individual states.
State rankings reveal different kinds of exposure
Millar Law Firm’s index combines four population-adjusted crash measures. Delaware received the highest overall score, followed by Indiana, but their results reflected different patterns.
Delaware stood out for pedestrian involvement in fatal school-zone crashes, with an average annual rate of approximately 1.31 involvements per million residents. Indiana led the measure covering vehicles involved in fatal crashes where a school-zone sign or traffic-control device was recorded.
| Measure | Jurisdiction | Average annual involvements per million residents |
|---|---|---|
| Pedestrian involvement in fatal school-zone crashes | Delaware | 1.31 |
| Pedestrian involvement in fatal school-zone crashes | District of Columbia | 0.58 |
| Vehicle involvement in fatal crashes with a recorded school-zone sign or device | Indiana | 0.589 |
| Same vehicle measure | Kentucky | 0.444 |
| Same vehicle measure | Alaska | 0.410 |
| Pedalcyclist involvement in fatal school-zone crashes | District of Columbia | Approximately 0.29 |
These are separate component measures, not interchangeable fatality rates.
Raw totals tell a different story from population-adjusted rates. California recorded 80 pedestrian involvements in fatal school-zone crashes during the decade, the largest state total reported in the study. Pennsylvania and New York each recorded 45.
California’s annual population-adjusted rate was approximately 0.20 per million residents, considerably below Delaware’s.
That distinction matters for interpreting the rankings. Large states can record more incidents while producing lower per-capita rates. In smaller jurisdictions, a few additional cases can substantially change the result.
Protection around schools varies widely
The study’s infrastructure figures suggest that students encounter uneven safeguards depending on their campus and community.
National Center for Education Statistics findings cited in the research show that 83% of public schools reported a designated school zone immediately around campus. Far fewer reported crossing guards or physical measures intended to slow vehicles.
| Feature reported by public schools | Share of schools |
|---|---|
| Designated school zone | 83% |
| Sidewalks on at least some surrounding streets | 79% |
| Crossing guards on surrounding streets | 41% |
| Traffic-calming features, such as speed bumps | 35% |
| Bike lanes | 19% |
Crossing-guard coverage was especially uneven. It reached 51% among elementary schools but just 19% among high and secondary schools. Approximately half of suburban schools reported crossing guards, compared with 21% of rural schools.
Meanwhile, 38% of school leaders moderately or strongly agreed that nearby traffic patterns threatened students’ physical safety during their commute.
These figures do not establish that every school without a particular feature is unsafe. They do show that a designated school zone often exists without the same supporting infrastructure available elsewhere.
The index measures relative conditions, not a child’s probability of injury
Georgia ranked 13th among the 51 jurisdictions, with an index score of 26.6. Its decade totals included 39 school-bus vehicle involvements in fatal crashes, 15 pedestrian involvements in fatal school-zone crashes and two pedalcyclist involvements in fatal school-zone crashes.
The index weighted its four crash components as follows:
- 35%: pedestrian involvement in fatal school-zone crashes.
- 25%: school-bus vehicle involvement in fatal crashes.
- 25%: vehicle involvement in fatal crashes with a recorded school-zone sign or device.
- 15%: pedalcyclist involvement in fatal school-zone crashes.
A separate modifier based on tracked license-plate-reader density could increase the base score by up to 10%. Those devices are not necessarily school-zone speed cameras, so the modifier does not directly measure school-zone enforcement coverage or effectiveness.
The final scores express relative standing within the comparison. Delaware’s score of 100 does not represent a 100% crash risk. Likewise, vehicle and person involvements should not be treated as interchangeable with unique crashes or deaths.
The strongest finding reaches beyond any state’s position: most children killed in school-transportation-related crashes were outside school transportation vehicles. For communities assessing school travel, the data place pedestrian access, surrounding motorists and bus-stop operations alongside the safety of the ride itself.