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The wheels on the bus go round and round - safely

(NEWS CENTER Maine)-- Riding a school bus is about the safest way for kids to travel according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to the NHTSA, four to six school-age children die each year on school transportation vehicles which is less than one percent of all traffic fatalities nationwide. Now obviously, even one death is too many and this is national school bus safety week where the drivers and kids focus on making getting from point A to point B as safe as possible...

In South Portland, they run evacuation drills on a regular basis so the kids know what to do in case of an emergency. "It's extremely important that everybody is in sync, that we do it right, so that nobody gets hurt. I mean we only have seconds to get off if there is a fire or what not on the bus" said Jamie Creamer who is in his 13th year as a bus driver.

When it comes to safety precautions, a big problem is cars not paying attention to busses with their lights on.

"We have set up most of our runs so they are picking the children up on the door side of the bus, because we know it is an issue in the town. It can be inconvenient as far as a logistic problem, but the safety of the children come before anything else, so if that's what needs to happen, we make it happen that way" said Lisa Gadway, the Director of Transportation for South Portland schools.

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