Imagine you are in your car driving to the mall. You are not wearing your seat belt. You go to turn the corner when you realize that you are doing flips in your car. You’re banging your head on the seat, glass is broken and you can’t feel anything.
What are the chances of your being OK? It’s almost impossible because you did not wear your seat belt. Seat belts save lives, and should be on all moving vehicles, especially school buses.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fatalities would be reduced by 45 percent if we had seat belts on school buses. That’s 250 lives saved per year in America. Seventy percent of fatalities would be reduced just on rollover crashes. That many lives are worth paying for seat belts.
If you had seat belts on a bus and it crashed, you wouldn’t be rolling around in the bus. You would be strapped into your seat. Also, you wouldn’t be able to overcrowd the bus because there would be only two seat belts per seat, which means no more than two kids per seat.
On the other hand, seat belts might have a few disadvantages as well. Kids might want to rip up, cut or damage the seat belts causing a lot of expenses. Also, kids might get stuck in the case of an emergency such as a fire.
I think seat belts would be a very smart thing to get on school buses. It makes everything safer for the kids and the driver. It may be a bit expensive, but no amount of money could ever replace the lives lost in bus crashes.
JADA LA VOIE
Jonesborough
dbshcu writes:
December 7, 2012
8:09 AM
I can see your point with this, to an extent, however no one seems to take into consideration that younger elementary school children would have to be assisted in buckling and unbuckling their seat belts when getting on or off the bus. I am sure the driver would be held liable if he/she did not verify that seats belts were properly secured. If the driver has to assist in this, it would mean having to shut down the bus on whatever street or road they were on, get up and buckle in or unbuckle the child, then restart the bus and continue on. Having formerly been a TN school bus driver I know that this is what must occur if the driver leaves their seat according to the THP. This would have to be done multiple times each morning and afternoon. Would this cause a bigger hazard with the bus being stopped for an extended period at each stop on an elementary route??? I do not know the answer unless an aide or other adult is assigned to each bus to assist with the seatbelts.
And as for the overcrowding issue, I have seen a new school bus locally with seat belts and yes they are designed for three students per seat with three seat belts. I believe this is an issue that will be hashed and rehashed over and over.
To many liabilities and to little pay are the top reasons now that school systems are unable to hire quality drivers to carry the most precious cargo on earth.