WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American School Bus Council (ASBC) has released Carmen Loves the Bus, a downloadable children’s book that includes activities designed to help young children learn how to safely ride a school bus.

The book is available at www.americanschoolbuscouncil.org/downloads/ASBCChildrensBook.pdf.

The ASBC is also urging parents to get informed about local bus routes, talk to their teenagers about vehicle safety and encourage them to ride a bus to school.

"As students around the country close out another school year, we believe it's never too early to get ready for next year," said Barry Stock, president of the National School Transportation Association and an ASBC member. "School bus transportation continues to be the safest way for kids to get to school, and come fall, bus drivers and school transportation directors in nearly every town in America will be ready to safely get kids to school every day."

In a 2002 report, the Transportation Research Board — part of the National Academy of Sciences — found that a child is 13 times safer in a school bus than in other modes of travel, and children driving to school or riding to school with other teenage drivers are 44 times more likely to be fatally injured than in a school bus.