School Bus · Student Management and Special Safety Considerations
School bus guidance warns about tail swing. How much can it be, and when does it matter?
Explanation
Tail swing on a school bus runs to roughly three feet, and the mirrors have to be checked going into a turn and again during it because of that. Tail swing is what the overhang does once the front of the bus starts turning: the bodywork aft of the rear axle tracks outward on the side away from the turn, so the part of the bus most likely to catch a parked car, a pole, or a person is the part the driver is neither steering nor watching. Checking before the turn establishes what is sitting alongside; checking during it is what catches whatever moved in after the turn began. The wrong options each take a piece of the fact and break it. Restricting the swing to reversing is wrong, since it happens on any turning movement, and the forward turn is where it catches people out. Stretching the distance to ten feet also drags in a lookout requirement that belongs to reversing rather than turning. Pinning it to rear engine buses converts a general consequence of carrying bodywork behind the rear axle into a quirk of one layout. The three foot figure is the manual's; 49 CFR 383.123(a)(2)(iv), operating practices and procedures not otherwise specified, is the knowledge area and states no figure.
Source: 49 CFR 383.123(a)(2)(iv)
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