By JENNY DERRINGER

derringer@crescent-news.com

Now that classes are back in session for all northwest Ohio school districts, students have several options to get to school -- though the majority still ride the bus.

That big yellow bus just might be the safest form of transportation because the Ohio Highway Patrol's motor vehicle inspection unit checks out the state's more than 23,000 buses twice a year.

In Ohio, the last fatality involving a student riding a bus was in 1966. Nationwide, however, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that currently an average of six children who are passengers die in school transportation-related crashes each year.

The NHTSA reported that "school buses are approximately seven times safer than passenger cars or light trucks. The school bus occupant fatality rate of 0.2 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is considerably lower than the fatality rates for passenger cars or light trucks (1.44 per 100 million VMT).

In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report on school transportation.

"The Relative Risks of School Travel: A National Perspective and Guidance for Local Community Risk Assessment" noted there were 815 fatalities related to school transportation per year. But breaking down the figures for that time period, 2 percent of fatalities were related to actual bus transportation. Twenty-two percent of fatalities were associated with walking or riding a bike to school while around 75 percent of those fatalities involved passenger vehicles such as cars and trucks.

So hitching a ride to class on the school bus seems to be the safest option for students, though for high schoolers, it may not be the coolest mode of transportation.

In April 2007, Ohio's graduated driver's license law took effect. Under the law, "drivers under age 17 aren't permitted to have more than one person who is not a family member in the vehicle, unless accompanied by the license holder's parent, guardian or legal custodian."

An interesting fact gleaned from a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that among young drivers the risk of a fatal accident doubles if there is a passenger in the vehicle. The study also observed that "two passengers triple the risk, and three or more passengers increase the risk by more than six."

Defiance High School principal Bob Morton has issued 150 parking permits for teen student drivers for the start of the school year. The number of passengers, though, isn't what it would have been in years past due to the new state law.

With a 2008-09 enrollment of approximately 2,500 students in Defiance City Schools, superintendent Mike Struble noted that 2,000 of those use district transportation.

Currently at the elementary schools, many parents still drop their children off.

"When the new (elementary) school opens," said Struble, "we anticipate an increase in students who ride the bus. Students who presently walk to their elementary schools will be bused."

The new elementary school, located along Carter Road, will open in January. This will replace the four neighborhood elementary schools that were typically within walking distance for the students.

In Fulton County, enrollment at Pettisville Local Schools is approximately 550 students.

"About 400 of those are assigned to bus routes," said Amy Frey, transportation supervisor. "That doesn't necessarily mean that they ride or that they ride daily."

She finds that it is still very common for parents to take their students to school.

In addition, many high school students drive to class themselves. On an average day, said Frey, there are approximately 58 cars in the student parking lot.