Seatbelts on School Buses – Yes
I completely believe that the only answer to this question is yes. I have heard and read so many debates about this issue, some of which make a good argument against seatbelts, but I only see a positive outcome in seatbelt use on school busses. The ultimate question you have to ask yourself is, Is my child's safety more important than the few extra minutes it takes to buckle a seatbelt?.The number one argument I have heard against seatbelt usage is how to, and who will enforce it. In my opinion, there is an easy solution to both of these questions. First of all, whether or not seatbelts are an issue, bus drivers already have too much responsibility for one person to take on. How much could it possibly cost to employ one person to be an assistant to the driver? This assistant could easily walk the length of the bus and ensure each child is safely buckled in, and quickly help the smaller children. The assistant could monitor bus activity and ensure that everyone stays in their seats until their stop. This alone would cut back on the zoo like environment of most school busses today.The next issue is how to enforce seatbelt usage. One person I talked to asked if I thought the police were going to pull over busses and do random checks. Not only is that a waste of time and resources, but it's completely unnecessary. When I was in school, if you didn't follow the rules of the school bus, you were punished at school. We had consequences like being suspended from bus riding to being suspended from school. Why not do the same to motivate the children to use their seatbelts? If it's mandatory, and they refuse, they can be punished just the same as breaking any other rule.Another argument I hear on this subject questions the necessity of seatbelts in a school bus. People seem to assume they are safe and nothing is going to happen. Although bus accidents are admittedly rare, they do happen. And usually there are injuries that could have been prevented by a seatbelt. You don't think twice about buckling your child's seatbelt in your car, so what makes a bus any different? A bus has a lot more occupants, and foreign objects that could fly around in an accident. There is so much open space in a bus that a child could be tossed around in if it were tumbling in an accident. Even just a rear end collision could easily cause your child to be thrown from their seat into something dangerous. Seatbelts are designed to keep you in place in an accident, thus keeping you from being thrown into things, or thrown out of the bus in an accident.This brings me to another issue that is highly debated on this subject. If there is an accident, how much time would it take to remove seatbelts and get the children out of the bus? My answer to that is, unless the bus is on fire, speedy evacuation isn't an issue. In fact, some children have actually been injured seriously by being removed too soon after an accident. Besides, the older children could release themselves, and then assist the smaller children if needed. Personally, I would rather take the time to help my child out of their seatbelt in an accident than try to find them after they were thrown from the bus.So, even though there are a lot of arguments out there against seatbelt usage in school busses, I have to say that the pro's out way the con's on this issue. Sure, there would be time and money invested in enforcing this, but who wouldn't invest a little time and money into their child? I would never put my daughter in my car without being in her seatbelt. We have been in an accident where the seatbelt saved both of our lives. I dare not think what would happen if her bus was hit head on, and she had no restraint from being thrown into the next seat, banging her head on the floor, or worse. I honestly believe that any money spent on installation and assistants for bus drivers would be money well spent on the safety of my daughter.
I completely believe that the only answer to this question is yes. I have heard and read so many debates about this issue, some of which make a good argument against seatbelts, but I only see a positive outcome in seatbelt use on school busses. The ultimate question you have to ask yourself is, Is my child's safety more important than the few extra minutes it takes to buckle a seatbelt?.
The number one argument I have heard against seatbelt usage is how to, and who will enforce it. In my opinion, there is an easy solution to both of these questions. First of all, whether or not seatbelts are an issue, bus drivers already have too much responsibility for one person to take on. How much could it possibly cost to employ one person to be an assistant to the driver? This assistant could easily walk the length of the bus and ensure each child is safely buckled in, and quickly help the smaller children. The assistant could monitor bus activity and ensure that everyone stays in their seats until their stop. This alone would cut back on the zoo like environment of most school busses today.
The next issue is how to enforce seatbelt usage. One person I talked to asked if I thought the police were going to pull over busses and do random checks. Not only is that a waste of time and resources, but it's completely unnecessary. When I was in school, if you didn't follow the rules of the school bus, you were punished at school. We had consequences like being suspended from bus riding to being suspended from school. Why not do the same to motivate the children to use their seatbelts? If it's mandatory, and they refuse, they can be punished just the same as breaking any other rule.
Another argument I hear on this subject questions the necessity of seatbelts in a school bus. People seem to assume they are safe and nothing is going to happen. Although bus accidents are admittedly rare, they do happen. And usually there are injuries that could have been prevented by a seatbelt. You don't think twice about buckling your child's seatbelt in your car, so what makes a bus any different? A bus has a lot more occupants, and foreign objects that could fly around in an accident. There is so much open space in a bus that a child could be tossed around in if it were tumbling in an accident. Even just a rear end collision could easily cause your child to be thrown from their seat into something dangerous. Seatbelts are designed to keep you in place in an accident, thus keeping you from being thrown into things, or thrown out of the bus in an accident.
This brings me to another issue that is highly debated on this subject. If there is an accident, how much time would it take to remove seatbelts and get the children out of the bus? My answer to that is, unless the bus is on fire, speedy evacuation isn't an issue. In fact, some children have actually been injured seriously by being removed too soon after an accident. Besides, the older children could release themselves, and then assist the smaller children if needed. Personally, I would rather take the time to help my child out of their seatbelt in an accident than try to find them after they were thrown from the bus.
So, even though there are a lot of arguments out there against seatbelt usage in school busses, I have to say that the pro's out way the con's on this issue. Sure, there would be time and money invested in enforcing this, but who wouldn't invest a little time and money into their child? I would never put my daughter in my car without being in her seatbelt. We have been in an accident where the seatbelt saved both of our lives. I dare not think what would happen if her bus was hit head on, and she had no restraint from being thrown into the next seat, banging her head on the floor, or worse. I honestly believe that any money spent on installation and assistants for bus drivers would be money well spent on the safety of my daughter.
