MACEDONIA, Ohio — An offer that was introduced last year for a free safety training program for school bus drivers has drawn a massive response.

About 2,400 copies of the Danger Zones program have been shipped to school districts and contractors across the U.S.

The offer still stands, and Jeff Cassell, president of the School Bus Safety Co., noted that about 5 new requests have still been coming in per week. He said the operations that have gotten a copy so far represent a total of 210,712 school buses.

“We expect that districts will use this course for many years and it will help protect millions of children,” Cassell said.

The School Bus Safety Co. launched the cooperative endeavor last March with the Public School Risk Institute, the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) and 247Security Inc. to provide the comprehensive training set at no charge.

The move was in response to a drastic increase in danger zone fatalities. Seventeen children were killed in school bus loading and unloading accidents in the 2008-09 school year, according to the Kansas State Department of Education’s national survey.

The 2009-10 report was released earlier this week, finding that danger zone fatalities dropped nearly a fourth from the previous school year, to 13.

The Danger Zones program, one of many titles in the School Bus Safety Co.’s Driver Training Course, features a 20-minute DVD, a trainer’s guide and a driver handout. It covers all aspects of how drivers should behave to prevent danger zone accidents.

Any school district that hasn’t already received a free copy of the program can go to www.schoolbussafetyco.com to request it.