Yes or No for Seat Belts on School Buses

25 million students ride the largest form of mass transit in the country each day when they board new or used school buses to get to and from school. The vast majority of them make these trips without the use of seats belts, a fact that has been hotly debated for years. The question surrounding the issue is, “Why is it illegal in 49 out of 50 states (New Hampshire being the exception) to not wear a seat belt in a car while it is acceptable in a school bus?”

The arguments against the installation of seat belts in new and used school buses focus primarily on two factors; the expense of installation and the safety features that are already designed into school buses. In terms of the expense of installation, an Alabama State Department of Education report revealed that installing seat beats on every bus in the state would incur a cost ranging from a minimum of $32 million to a top end cost of $38 million.

The second factor in the argument against seat belts on school buses is that the safety design implemented in buses, known as “compartmentalization” is sufficient. In a compartmentalized bus, high backed seats are engineered to absorb the energy and impact of an accident with cushions and/or padding. The seats are also set up in a tight configuration to minimize movement.

Additional arguments against seat belts include:

• The concern that seat belts would be used improperly or not at all, increasing the danger to all passengers
• That seat belts could be used as weapons
• That money spent on seat belts would save more lives if it was put toward safety measures related to getting to and leaving the bus, where more fatalities occur than in bus-related accidents

Arguments for the installation of seat belts focus on:

• The additional safety provided by seat belts in side impact crashes
• Increased safety in rollover accidents

The final factor in the argument for and against installing seat belts on new and used school buses may be found in the safety records related to bus transportation to and from school, where only buses weighing less than 10,000 pounds are required to have seat belts. Depending on the study, statistics show that between 6 and 11 school bus related fatalities occur each year, making school buses one of the safest forms of transportation available. For more information, visit: http://www.busmartinc.com/