Survey: Stopped Texas School Buses Were Illegally Passed an Average of 1.3 Times on a Single Day in April 2024

A total of 6,699 individual Texas school bus drivers reported that — on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 — they collectively observed 8,583 vehicles illegally passing their stopped school buses.

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That equates to each school bus driver, on average, reporting that their stopped school bus was illegally passed 1.3 times on that day.

  • Note: For the prior (2022-23) school year, 8,007 Texas school bus drivers collectively reported observing their stopped school buses being illegally passed — on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 — 10,440 times (also averaging 1.3 times per bus on that day).

The Texas stats are included in the annual national school bus “stop arm” survey released this week by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS). Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia participated. Each state chose its own date in the later part of the 2023-24 school year to ask their bus drivers to report the illegal passing of their stopped school buses.

Nationally
Nationally, 98,065 school bus drivers reported that 66,322 motorists passed their buses illegally on a single day. That’s an average of about 1.5 illegal stopped bus passings observed per school bus driver.

The survey — which is typically released just before school starts each year — has been conducted annually since 2011 (except for the 2020 and 2021 COVID school disruptive years).

The graphic above summarizes Texas (and comparative national) survey data.

  • Note: The NASDPTS reports — as the official number of times a stopped school bus is passed on the jurisdiction’s designated day — the total number of illegal passings “by time of day.”