Bus belts
In North Carolina today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced a proposal to mandate the installation of safety belts in small school buses have and to require that all school buses have higher seat backs. However, the government is not proposing a safety-belt requirement on larger buses. Peters says the three-point safety belts are needed on smaller buses because they are more prone to rollovers than larger buses.
The proposal calls for all new school buses to be equipped with 24-inch seat backs; the existing regulation calls for seat backs of 20 inches.
What do you think? Are large school buses already safe enough without belts? Or should the government require school districts and bus fleet operators to provide three-point belts as an extra measure of protection?
Leave a comment below.
November 20th, 2007 @ 11:12 am
An administrator from Maryland writes:
“This is one of those initiatives that sounds good, makes the proponents feel nice, and pacifies the public. The only problem is there is no documented justification of any tangible benefit from this expense. If a train hits a school bus, for example, it is meaningless to the results if the passengers were wearing seat belts. The tort implications must have trial lawyers drooling in their chambers–who is responsible to make sure elementary school children put on their seat belts and keep them on?”
November 20th, 2007 @ 12:54 pm
Yes, I believe even the larger buses should have seat belts…There are tangible monetary and human consequences when seat belts are not used. My first grader has brought this up several times–why the big yellow buses don’t have seat belts–especially when I’m telling her she has to put one on in the car and she observes the TV advertisements of using seat belts. We wonder how we give our kids mixed signals–I think this is but a simple one in which to take note. I don’t think telling a first grader “we can’t afford it” sends a good message either–nor would it be understood. On the other hand, who is going to pay for it (the proverbial questions we must ask when something good needs to happen)?
November 20th, 2007 @ 3:23 pm
A fire safety official from Guam writes:
“I feel that all buses should have seat belts. They are a vehicle on the road just like any other vehicle. Seat belts are for safety. We wear them on planes. They wouldn’t cost that much more to install. And passengers are already programmed to wear seat belts.”
November 21st, 2007 @ 10:53 am
NO,NO,NO. I drive a school bus, and as a driver we have enough distractions with other vehicles on the road and most of all keeping the students on the bus in check. Adding seat belts would be more of a safety problem—telling the students to use them and making sure they keep the belts secured during the bus ride would mean taking our eyes off the road more often for the seat belts.
November 27th, 2007 @ 8:47 am
The school buses in this country travel millions of miles with a very low accident ratio to miles traveled and have a steel cage construction. There is no practical way, short of a school bus aide on every bus, to make sure all kids are buckled in.
November 27th, 2007 @ 8:49 am
Being from New York, where we have seat belts, and as a former bus driver, I think that basically the only thing seat belts on buses get used for are weapons. The bus driver has no way of knowing if the students even put them on. To me, they are a waist of time and taxpayer money to install them. We went to high-back seats some years in the name of safety and all that did was obstruct the driver’s view of the passengers. It’s time to use common sense instead of causing minor injuries from weapons.