ALT-3 Should School Buses have and Enforce Seat Belt use – No
As a former school bus driver with many years of experience behind the wheel, I don't think seat belts on school buses are a good idea. In a perfect world where kids board the school bus quietly, find a seat, sit down and follow directions, seat belts could be an asset.
As any school bus driver will affirm, ours is not a perfect world. Rarely do kids meekly board a bus and sit down. Instead, kids freshly released from their schoolroom prison fairly launch themselves onto the bus, eager to get home. They are talking, laughing, chewing gum, throwing paper, pushing, shoving, hollering, opening windows and moving from seat to seat.
Kids have energy to expend and rarely are they docile when boarding a bus. It's a challenge to get them all seated so the bus can leave. Expecting a school bus driver to have the time, as a flight attendant would, to walk up and down the aisle checking seat belts, is absurd. School buses are on a strict timetable and it's a timetable that leaves no time for walking the aisle. Seven minutes after the school bell rings, buses are rolling. Seven minutes is not a lot of time to board and seat 40 to 60 kids; it's ridiculous to think that a school bus driver would have time to enforce seat belt use.
Rambunctious kids are more likely to use the seat belt buckles to hit other kids, or to snap the belts together across the aisle, creating a tripping hazard. For as safe as seat belts are when used properly, they are equally unsafe when used improperly. Seat belts on a school bus could easily create more of a hazard than a benefit. The driver, when properly attending to driving the bus, will not be able to see what kids are doing with the seat belts. It was after driving a Special Ed bus that I discovered that the kids had snapped the belts together across the aisle to create a tripping hazard.
Most city school bus routes are short and kids are not on the bus for more than 15 minutes at a time. Routes are mostly in neighborhoods where the speed limit is low and the traffic is light. The likelihood of an accident is slim.
Protecting our kids is important to me. I'm an advocate of seat belt use and I never drive without buckling up. I recognize, however, the futility in trying to seat belt an entire bus load of kids, and cannot advocate the use of seat belts on a school bus. Having a well-trained bus driver behind the wheel is the best way to protect our kids.
