An average of seven school-age children die every year in school bus crashes, but nearly three times that number are killed waiting for or getting on or off the bus, according to School Transportation News.

Illinois is one of 23 states where bus stop-arm cameras are legal and where school districts and local units of government monitor illegal passing school buses and where tickets can be issued. In 2017, more than 104,000 school bus drivers observed more than 77,000 vehicles illegally passing school buses in a single day.

At that rate, more than 14 million violations would occur in a single year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Between 2006 and 2015, 102 pedestrians under the age of 18 were killed in school transportation accidents.

Illinois does not, however, require school districts to install seat belts on buses as is the case in eight states. In May of 2018, the National Highway Transportation Safety Board recommended states “Enact legislation to require that all new large school buses be equipped with passenger lap/shoulder belts for all passenger seating positions.”

The NHTSA reports that on average, six school bus passengers die each year in bus crashes, which is compared 2,000 children who are killed in car accidents.

States across the country have mostly focused on two policies, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures — allowing school districts to use bus cameras to help catch motorists illegally passing stopped school buses, and requiring seat belts.

Here’s what Illinois requires, according to School Training Solutions, an online training program for people who work for school districts across the country.

Motorists must stop before meeting or passing a school bus loading or unloading passengers on a two-lane roadway. Drivers must remain stopped until the stop signal arm is no longer extended and the flashing lights are turned off or the driver signals motorists to pass. Drivers do not always need to stop when meeting a stopped school bus on a roadway with four or more lanes or if they are traveling in the opposite direction of the bus, but they should drive cautiously.

In Indiana, more than 200 law enforcement organizations will take part in the “SAVE blitz” operation, short for Stop Arm Violation Enforcement when the upcoming school year starts. Extra patrols across the Hoosier State will be on a specific lookout for bus stop-arm violators, the Journal-Gazette newspaper reported.

Devon McDonald, of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, said speeding around, or ignoring, a bus stop arm is “reckless,” in a statement reported by the Journal-Gazette.

“It puts everyone on the road at risk, including children, and has to stop,” McDonald said.

School Transportation News reports an average of 19 kids are killed every year getting on or off the bus, while about seven a year die in school bus crashes.

See Also: What To Do When A Bus Stop Arm Is Extended

Most of the victims are between five and seven years old, according to Stanford Children’s Health, and hit in “danger zones,” the area within 10 feet in front of, behind, and to either side of a bus.

Less than three years ago, 12 children were killed and another 47 injured while getting on and off school buses from August 2018 to March 2019.

Among them were three Rochester, Indiana, siblings who died in 2018 while waiting for their school bus, which authorities said had its stop arm extended and lights flashing. Just a day later, a 9-year-old boy in Tupelo, Mississippi, was killed while crossing a highway trying to get to a school bus.

A year earlier, school bus drivers across the United States saw nearly 78,000 drivers illegally passing school buses in one day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“Motorists need to pay attention to what’s going on around them,” National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services President Michael LaRocco told School Transportation News after the back-to-back days of children’s deaths at school bus stops.