The uptick in school bus crashes seems alarming and yeah drivers are much worse. I have a friend who works for the DOT and is involved in research on the driving statistics and he said it's been alarming and scary since COVID, particularly with DUI's. People are much more aggressive trying to get around school buses or pass them and even blowing by them when they have the stop sign out.
But bus drivers have some fault too, particularly on the highway. You can't have school busses on the highway going 40-50 mph, especially when they're changing lanes. There was a time when I would be driving down 91S and entering Hartford, if I caught it at a specific time, there would be two school busses merging onto the highway and getting over 3 lanes to catch the route 2 exit...it was scary because they're doing 30 and everyone else is doing 60-70.