Seat belts for school buses?

PHOENIX, AZ - GHN News Editor - Despite auto safety regulations requiring seat belts in cars, there is
no standard requirement for safety belts in school buses, something
advocates say should be adopted for child safety.

In recent incidents, two school buses in Missouri were involved in

accidents, one causing the fatality of a student and the driver of the
bus while over fifty students were injured.


Accidents involving school buses raise the concerns about having seat belts on school buses.


The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating these accidents to determine whether having seat belts would have prevented the deaths and injuries.


The Highway Traffic Commission reports that from 1998 to 2008, there
were over 1,500 school transportation related fatalities but opponents
of having seat belts in school buses point out only 8 percent of those
deaths involved occupants of buses and other school transportation
vehicles.


Opponents of having seat belts in school buses point to statistics like
those reported by the Highway Traffic Commission and declare school
buses are safe enough.  The NHTSA has been one of those opponents,
declaring it is too costly and involves safety issues to make seat belts
on school buses mandatory.


The NHTSA  instead advocates its "compartmentalization "
recommendations, a which is similar to what is used on airplanes with
seats designed with high backs and soft padded seats.


Advocates for seat belts say there is insufficient data to prove that
compartmentalization is the right approach and that it is dated.


The National Coalition for School Bus Safety  report notes,
"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."


Advocates
of seat belts in school buses maintain that as smaller buses have been
now required to have lap/shoulder belts on vehicles manufactured after
2011 this means the rules may change in the future, requiring seat belts
on school buses.

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