ALT-1 Should Seat Belts be Required on School Buses
It is the law for children to have to wear seat belts or be in restraint seats whenever they are in a moving vehicle, right? No, that is not right. While it is the law that seat belts must be worn in passenger vehicles, there is a loop hole in most states.That loop hole is school buses.
In November 2007, Parents magazine reported that only New York, New Jersey, Florida, Louisiana, and California have statewide mandates about the use of seat belts in school buses. There are also some individual municipalities that have mandates. But, the federal government has repeatedly declined to issue federal mandates on the matter.
The same article in Parents magazine says that adding lap-and-shoulder belts to a new bus would only add about $1,000 to the total price of the bus. Some buses have seat belts for the driver but, not for the children! It is scary to think that our school systems are so cheap that they will not spend the extra money or take the initiative to equip the buses with seat belts.
Meanwhile, I can almost certainly guarantee that the faculty and staff have all gotten raises. I am pretty sure that most schools have fairly new uniforms and equipment for their athletics teams. Backers give money to support the extracurricular activities. Fund raisers happen all year. Have you ever heard of a fund raiser to improve the safety of our children? I never have.
While schools preach safety and say that they care about our children, they turn their heads when it comes to a basic safety issue. I am not sure exactly why they feel that buses are safe without seat belts. I am not sure why school districts and PTAs don't push to get the seat belts. I am not sure why our legislators on federal, state and local levels do not try to secure funding for seat belts on school buses.
I know that seat belts are not the only safety issue that our children face when riding the school bus. Some of the other problems are unsafe drivers, dangers getting on and off the bus, and dangers while waiting for the bus, children being accidentally left on the bus, and so on.
Aside from lap and shoulder belts, there are many upgrades that can help to rectify each of these problems. Child check systems make a bus driver walk to the back of the bus and press a button or an alarm will sound. This is to help encourage drivers to check every seat for children left on the bus. Fire retardant upholstery can help prevent burns after a crash. Two roof hatches can provide an escape if the bus flips on its side. Motion detectors in front of the bus can help drivers to see if there is something or someone moving in front of or under the bus. The problem is that most buses do not have these upgrades.
Schools must start to take action now to get our school buses safer. I think they should start by upgrading the buses that make the longest trips, such as the buses used to travel to away athletic events and field trips. New buses ordered by the school should at least have the lap and shoulder belts installed.
I know that this problem will not get corrected overnight. As concerned adults, we need to take action today to help get these safety concerns addressed. Contact your local school board to ask what they plan to do about school bus safety. Contact federal, state and local legislators to press for mandates at every level to help protect our children on the school bus. The only way to make school buses safer for our most precious asset, our children, is for concerned parents and citizens to pressure the powers that be to issue mandates and provide funding to correct the problem.
