The primary objective of this program, conducted by Ultrasystems, Inc. under NHTSA contract, was to develop an improved school bus structure producible with only modest cost and increases over current buses. A secondary objective was to evaluate safety, driver field-of-view, acceleration and passing, braking, and handling characteristics of typical contemporary school buses.

Structural crashworthiness accident avoidance tests were conducted on two Baseline Buses. An Improved School Bus was designed and two Improved Buses were fabricated for test and evaluation. Identical tests on the Improved Bus showed structural improvements of 33 to 57 percent were achieved with a cost increase of only $400 (4.5 percent) and a weight increase of only 530 pounds (3.9 percent). Acceleration and passing, braking, and handling tests showed that the added weight had not degraded performance in these areas. Based on these results, school bus structural standards and feasible compliance test procedures were recommended. Other recommendations were made for improved emergency egress, driver fieldof-view, and handling test procedures.