Back-To-School Alert For Parents - Where Are The Seat Belts On School Buses?
Of all the hypocrisy flowing from the governments in our country, none is more alarming than the antiquated view of safety in school buses. You may be surprised to know that there are no safety standards for school buses in America. NONE!
The use of seat belts has long been attributed to preventing injuries in cars, where they are required and planes where they have been part of the routine since the beginning of commercial flying. For years, the bus industry lobby has fought the inclusion of seat belts because of the cost and changes in construction modes. 17,000 children are injured every year in school bus accidents in the U.S. Fatal injuries are on the rise.
There are those naysayers who feel that the installation of seat belts is actually a negative. Find them and find out what fantasy-land they’re living.
The question is: Do you want to risk your loved ones to an accident that could cause victims to be thrown around the bus, risking serious injury or even worse?
Sunday night at 9:30 on my Voice of Reason show on CN 8, The Comcast Network, two experts in the field, Dr. Dennis Durbin of Children’s Hospital and Dr. Alan Ross, head of a national safety task force, examine the reasons why not having seat belts in buses is a prescription for disaster.
While we’re on that subject: There are no seat belts required on high speed trains or commercial buses. Imagine traveling at 140 MPH on a train and what could happened in a sudden stop or crash.
Larry, it’s good to know that I’m not the only one who has concerns about this issue. I’ve always wondered what would happen if a bus I was on should suddenly flip over in some freak accident. With my body type, I likely would not fare well if four two-hundred pound bodies fell on top of me. I don’t know how most parents don’t get anxiety over their kids riding the school bus. Something needs to change.
I am a school bus driver and yes there are some injuries that may be prevented by having seat belts on the buses but please look at the other side. The drivers are responsible (alone) for up to 70 children at a time, if something happens we have to make sure that everyone is safe and off the bus it would be difficult to do so if at the same time we had to remove seatbelts. the buses are designed in a way to make it harder for the children to get hurt.
I would love to have it both ways every child to be safe in the event of a tragic event, but I also feel that there may only be a very limited amount of time to get everyone out of a burning bus and seatbelts would hinder that tremendusly. I hope there could be a solution but I have yet to figure out one.
Compartmentalization is the name for the protective envelope created by strong, closely-spaced seats that have energy-absorbing high seat backs that protect occupants in the event of a crash. Features such as emergency exits, roof structure, fuel systems, and body joint strength make the bus stronger, larger, heavier, and safer than most other vehicles on the road today.It is not the school bus that is unsafe it is loading and unloading the school bus that is the problem.We should be spending money to make sure passing drivers are abiding by the rules of the road,and make every attempt to keep the kids safe at these times.If you check your stats you will see what I am talking about.We also need to be careful of who drives the bus,what type of training they recieve,and make sure they are emotionally and psychologically stable. I think these are the things we need to be concerned in reference to school bus saftey.