Safety Belts on School Buses
Posted on June 2, 2008 by Scott | Discuss this article
There are a lot of opinions and back and forth discussions on whether or not school buses should require safety belts. The National Highway Transportation Administration (NHTSA) has issued a position statement on seat belts on school buses, concluding that "there is insufficient reason for a Federal mandate for seat belts on large school buses." However, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) claims that current "compartmentalization" methods are not sufficiently safe and as a result, children are being injured and killed.
According to NHTSA, American students are nearly eight times safer riding in a school bus than with their own parents and guardians in cars. The fatality rate for school buses is only 0.2 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) compared to 1.5 fatalities per 100 million VMT for cars. This impressive safety record is a result of the Department of Transportation's requirements for compartmentalization on large school buses, and lap belts plus compartmentalization on small school buses.
The NHTSA report concluded that requiring lap belts on large, new school buses would appear to have little, if any, benefit in reducing serious-to-fatal injuries in severe frontal crashes. In rare circumstances, tests indicate that in some severe frontal crashes there may be increased risk of serious neck injuries and possibly abdominal injury among young passengers wearing lap belts. read the full report
However, in September of 1999 the NTSB issued a report on school bus crash-worthiness. The study found “compartmentalization” was ineffective during six typical school bus accidents. In every example the 222 seat failed to contain the passengers. Children were injured and killed as a result of both ejection and being tossed violently within the bus itself.
The Board concluded that:
Current compartmentalization is incomplete in that it does not protect school bus passengers during lateral impacts with vehicles of large mass and in rollovers, because in such accidents, passengers do not always remain completely within the seating compartment.
The Board went on to point out that passengers who were propelled from the “compartment” were the ones more likely to be injured during side impact and rollover collisions.
"Over 200,000 children have been injured since the inception of compartmentalization because of the failure of the compartment protect children in school bus accidents" said Dr. Arthur Yeager, co-founder of The Safety Lobby.
And yet, according to NEA (http://www.nea.org/esphome/issues/seatbelt.html) bus driver concerns fall on the side of no seat belts.
Bus Driver concerns:
- Students can and do use the heavy belt buckles as weapons, injuring other riders.
- It is next to impossible to make sure that all students keep their belts properly fastened, so that they are not injured by the belts in an accident.
- If a bus has to be evacuated in an emergency, such as a fire, panicked or disoriented students might be trapped by their belts.
What is the solution? How can the road safety industry keep children safe while riding the bus to and from school?
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