Abstract:Reports of approximately 1,800 accidents between 1982 and 1984 were analyzed to identify factors contributing to accidents involving mass transit buses. Data were provided by Pace, the suburban bus agency in the Chicago metropolitan area. Tactics that would enable Pace and similar agencies across the United States to do an even more effective job of safety management are identified. For the entire data set, 89% of the accidents involved collision with another object or person, and the remaining 11% involved passenger injuries while boarding, alighting, or moving about the bus. Severity levels were generally low; most accidents involved property damage only. Drivers of the other vehicle involved in the accident were much more likely to be injured than the bus driver: 10% of collision accidents involved automobile driver injuries, whereas bus drivers were injured in only 2% of the collisions. Despite the relative rareness of occurrence, clear patterns of injury have been identified. When the bus is in motion, 40% of automobile and bus driver injuries occur because of rear-end collisions. When the bus is stationary, 80% of the automobile occupant injuries occurred when the automobile rear-ended the bus. The analysis of bus drivers' attributes indicated that gender does not contribute to accident occurrence. Age appears to have a negative impact on accident involvement when experience is accounted for. Experience with the transit agency was strongly associated with accident occurrence (i.e., drivers with 3 to 6 years of experience at Pace were significantly overrepresented in accidents).