Law Library of Congress Comparative Report on School Bus Safety

The Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. recently published a report on school bus safety requirements:

"This report surveys technical requirements on school buses in the following select jurisdictions: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Iceland, Mexico, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. In addition to this summary, the report includes individual country surveys. A table of primary sources cited in the surveys is also provided."

"As depicted on the map at page 3, of the surveyed jurisdictions, Canada, Mexico, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates have buses that are specifically manufactured for school transportation, whereas the remaining jurisdictions use ordinary buses, vans, cars, or other vehicles to transport students to and from school."

"As shown on the map at page 4, China, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates have special legislation for school buses, while the remaining jurisdictions surveyed govern school buses or buses in general in their respective general vehicle legislation or regulations. Australia, Canada, and Mexico largely leave the regulation of school bus safety to the individual states of their respective jurisdictions, so safety requirements can differ within these countries."

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2 and a half million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Over the years, it has published dozens of comparative law reports which are a treasure trove for legal research on a huge variety of issues.