DANVILLE, Va. – An SUV slammed into the back of a school bus in Petersburg, Virginia, as the bus stopped to pick up a student Monday morning.
On Tuesday morning, a school bus and a moped collided in Newport News, Virginia, and Tuesday afternoon a school bus overturned in Lunenburg County.
According to a report released Tuesday by AAA Mid-Atlantic, school bus crashes in the commonwealth have increased 3 percent in the last five years.
"AAA is just calling for a real intense vigilance on safety around school buses," AAA government and public affairs manager Martha Meade said.
Tuesday's report was planned prior to Monday's crash, but Meade said the crash emphasizes the importance of the report.
"We've seen so many news reports across the country and recent fatalities with school buses. It kept resonating with us that this seemed to be increasing, so we did some digging and found out that, in fact, it was," Meade said.
In April, eight kids in Pittsylvania County were hospitalized with minor injuries after a pickup truck hit the bus they were on.
Pittsylvania County Schools transportation director Kenyon Scott says today's report is a reminder to always be focused on safety.
"We emphasize continually to our drivers the importance of safety, and we review protocols," Scott said.
Each of the county's bus drivers is assigned to a school, and once a month, the drivers at each school get together for a safety meeting.
The buses are inspected every 30 days, even though the state only requires an inspection every 45 days.
Stop arm cameras have also been purchased for some of the buses.
Nationally, a petition has been started to get the federal government to create "severe penalties" for people who don't obey school bus safety laws.
If the petition gets 100,000 signatures by Nov. 30, the White House will respond.