Overview

On September 19, 2023, FTA issued Safety Advisory 23-1: Bus-to-Person Collisions to recommend that transit agencies that provide bus service consider mitigation strategies to reduce bus-to-person collisions to help reduce the likelihood and severity of bus collisions with pedestrians, bicyclists and micromobility users.

At the time of the analysis for Safety Advisory 23-1, data from the National Transit Database shows that bus-to-person collisions remain a top safety concern accounting for 15 percent of fatalities from 2008 to 2021, with left turns as a predominant risk focus area.

To improve bus safety, bus transit agencies should identify specific hazards that may cause or contribute to bus-to-person collisions, assess the associated safety risk and implement appropriate mitigations to reduce the likelihood and severity of those collisions. At a minimum, agencies should consider the following bus operator vision impairment when conducting their safety risk assessments.

As a part of its safety risk assessment, FTA identified the following hazards that may result in bus-to-persons collisions:

• Bus operator vision impairment due to components of the bus design
• Bus operator vision impairment due to obstructions and activity outside of the bus
• Entry into the bus path by pedestrians, bicyclists and other micromobility users
• Limited space at bus stops and adjacent sidewalks 

FTA will roll out resources and engage with the industry on this topic area over the next several years. FTA will post bus-to-person collision resources on this website and send notifications once these resources are available. 

For further questions regarding this Safety Advisory, please email FTASystemSafety@dot.gov.

NEW: Safety Risk Management Bus-to-Person Collisions Mitigations

From 2008 to 2023, bus modes reported 8,230 bus-to-person collisions to the National Transit Database (NTD). These collisions resulted in 596 fatalities, or 14 percent of all transit fatalities, and 8,259 injuries. 

According to the NTD, from 2017 through 2023, 41 percent of bus-to-person collisions occurred in roadway intersections, 35 percent in mid-block of roadway and 24 percent at or around bus stops.

From 2017-2023, 41 percent of collisions occurred at roadway intersections; of those collisions, approximately 50 percent occurred with a pedestrian crossing a crosswalk.

Of the 689 injuries and fatalities which occurred at intersections with crosswalk pedestrians, the above chart shows the movement of the bus involved in those events. Note that over 50 percent of those collisions resulting in either fatality or injury, occurred when the bus was making a left turn.

For collisions that occurred mid-block, 49 percent of fatalities involve bicyclists and pedestrians crossing in and outside of the crosswalk and 44 percent of fatalities involved "All Other Pedestrians" — that is, pedestrians walking along the roadway and away from intersections and bus stops — and 33 percent of mid-block injuries involved bicyclists.

Further data on the impact location for collisions that occurred at mid-block of roadways revealed that collisions with bicyclists predominantly occurred on the side of the bus (59 percent), while pedestrians crossing the street outside of crosswalks were predominantly hit head-on or in the front (62 percent) by buses. Bicyclists predominantly experienced injuries or fatalities (59 percent or 222) in side-impact collisions. Pedestrians crossing outside of crosswalk predominately experienced injuries or fatalities (62 percent or 108) in head-on/front collisions.

Resources

Webinar

On October 5, 2023, FTA held a webinar to review key elements from the Safety Advisory, share resources available to assist transit agencies with safety risk assessments and mitigation implementation pertaining to bus-to-person collisions and featured a transit agency guest speaker who shared their experience with addressing risks associated with bus-to-person collisions, including mitigation strategies and lessons learned.

FTA Safety Advisory 23-1: Bus-to-Person Collisions
Thursday, October 5, 2023
Presentation | Recording

	Federal Highway Administration Improving Safety for Pedestrians and Bicyclists Accessing Transit
	Federal Transit Administration FTA Report No. 0084: Evaluation of Transit Bus Turn Warning Systems for Pedestrians and Cyclists
	Mineta Transportation Institute City Best Practices to Improve Transit Operations Safety
	Rutgers, Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy Pedestrian Safety at Bus Stops Study
	Transportation Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) TCRP Synthesis 83: Bus and Rail Transit Preferential Treatments in Mixed Traffic TCRP Report 125: Guidebook for Mitigation Fixed-Route bus-and-Pedestrian Collisions TCRP Synthesis 145: Current Practices in the Use of Onboard Technologies to Avoid Transit Bus Incidents and Accidents
	United States Department of Transportation Transit Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) Applications: Near Term Research and Development/Transit Bus Stop Pedestrian Safety Application: Operational Concept Vehicle Blind Zone Calculator
	Virginia Department of Transportation Evaluation of a Transit Bus Collision Avoidance Warning System in Virginia