Seat belts for school bus seats?

[poltr1]

One of the local TV stations had a feature which proposed that school buses -- and local transportation buses -- provide seat belts for their passengers. (Here's a link to the video clip.)

The transportation chief of one of the local school districts thinks it's not a good idea. His rationale: the seats inside school buses have enough padding in order to absorb the impact. It would also take too much time forthe driver to ensure that everyone was buckled in.

Personally, I think seat belts on buses is a bad idea, for this reason alone: Kids will use the seat belts as a weapon against other kids.

Comments?

Comments

[athenawindsong.livejournal.com]

There are +'s and -'s with this one. While it's necessary to keep our kids safe, it's unrealistic to expect them to buckle up. The chief is right about making the bus driver check everyone. The best solution is to have a driver's aide do periodic checks or even sit in the center-to-back of the bus where most of the shenanigans happens. Florida requires driver aides on busses, but most of the time, they sit at the front of the bus and chat up the driver during the entire route.

Personally, as a tax payer, I'd be willing to approve additional funds to outfit the busses with seat belts and aides. Those who think the seats are padded enough to absorb impact have either never ridden on a school bus or don't remember how fun it was to slide off the seats as the rear end of the bus goes around a corner. One good pothole and WHEEEEE!!!!! THUNK!!!

[poltr1]

I remember riding some of those barely-padded seats in the early to mid-1970s. In junior high, we tried to tip the bus over as it made a turn. We got the axle to scrape against the street. (I'm glad we didn't succeed.)

[athenawindsong.livejournal.com]

Many busses have cameras. Aren't people sick of watching their kids get attacked by other kids and knocked around in accidents by now? Seat belts aren't a panacea, but they are certainly better than NOT having them.

[athenawindsong.livejournal.com]

P.S. - seat belt buckles are, at best, short range weapons. Pens, pencils, metal wire from spiral bound notebooks, and very heavy textbooks are all much better than something that's unremovable and floppy.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

A number of school districts have buses that have seat belts, so there should be an empirical record of things such as time-to-belting and frequency of using the seat belt as a weapon. Why a superintendent would want to make policy based on speculation is beyond me, but hey! Maybe she or he should talk to bus drivers, who have to spend time getting kids to sit down.

[fuzzyvanman.livejournal.com]

How did we survive our childhood?

[kliklikitty.livejournal.com]

Having been on a couple of school buses that were in accidents. I can tell you seat belts would have helped a lot.

I had one bus driver who loved to speed over bumps and train tracks, there were times when we were all literally bounced out of our seats. One time where we were all bounced so hard that many of us bumped our heads on the roof of the bus. I had my mother take me to the ER to treat the minor concussion this gave me. We then had this guy fired for being such a J@ck @$$ behind the wheel.

The other time the roads where bad and even though our bus aide kept tight reign on us when the other guy spun out of control we went over the curb and on to our side. over half of us were seriously injured; most of those injuries could have been avoided if we were strapped in our seats with at least 3 point harnesses. I was lucky and only had some nasty bruises, my best friend had a broken collar bone.

No, seat belts are not the only answer to the safety problems kids on buses face today, but they are a good place to start along with better control by the bus aides.