Should School Buses have and Enforce Seat Belt use – Yes
As a youngster I rode the school bus for an hour each way everyday. As it was, our bus driver had rules, and most of the time, the children followed them. There was no standing in your seats, and you had to be seated until the bus came to a complete stop.
However that was years ago, and in the 1980's I drove on occasions with my sister-in-law who was a bus driver. It was crazy. The kids were up and down, roaming from one seat to another and there was a lot of chaos. It was difficult for her to control the kids, especially the teenagers.
I've seen students leave their seats at the back of the bus when it near the time for them to get off, only to find them grabbing seats and trying to hold on when the bus finally did come to a stop.
I feel that buses should indeed have seat belts. If a bus should have to stop suddenly the children (even seated) are flung ahead. The students that are standing simply shuffle and land in the isle or over the seat in front of them. If for some reason the bus gets into a accident and rolls on its side, you will have the entire bus full of students flying everywhere, which of course, could cause a great deal of injuries.
If there were seat-belts in use, the students would remain in their seats perhaps causing minimal injuries.Even if a bus was hit from behind, without seat-belts the students could get seriously hurt from the seats ahead of them, or from flying into the isle, or on top of someone else.
Most everyone is required to wear seat-belts in their vehicles, as it is a safety precaution. Do we not want to provide safety for our children? Buses run everyday, and in many cases, in a lot of traffic, and they need to stop frequently, so the potential for an accident is greater.
It is a statistical fact that seat-belts save lives. That is why we have laws that requires the owners of vehicles, to wear them. It seems quite odd that we would allow our children to ride in a vehicle without any protection.
In our own vehicles, it the first thing we do, strap our children in, and make sure that their seat-belts are securely fastened. We arerequired also by law, to obtain a car-seat for babies and young children. These laws are put into force for our safely. So why are we not screaming to the bus manufacturers, to build buses with seat-belts?
Why are we jeopardizing the lives of our children? We are their parents, or caretakers, and we have a right to safe public transportation. If there was any vehicle that needs a required seat-belt law, school buses should be up that at the very top.
Children are precious, and also very rambunctious, and I think it should be a law that all buses have seat-belts, to better protect them.
