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School bus safety is always important. It's important, for starters, when kids are getting on or off the big yellow bus. Every year an average of 14 kids are killed in loading zones. Every reasonable precaution must be taken to prevent those terrible incidents.
What's often overlooked is that safety is equally important on the bus as it is boarding it. Five children are killed onboard school buses every year, on average, in traffic accidents.
The terrible motor coach crash in New York City last March did not involve a school bus. But it called attention to a whole range of problems with bus safety. One of these is the lack of seat belts on most buses in the United States.
No Federal Seat Belt Rule
In late August, on the eve of the resumption of school, a key federal agency announced that it would not pursue a rule to require school buses to have seat belts. Safety advocates had sought such a rule to prevent children from being seriously injured in bus rollovers.
The safety advocates included the National Coalition for School Bus Safety. These groups have been trying for years to make buses safer for their occupants in a crash. Better stability controls and stronger roofs would also help, but it is seat belts that would most clearly protect passengers in a crash. Belts would help keep kids from being thrown from their seats if a collision occurs, and thus reduce the risk of injury or death.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) nonetheless decided against a federal seat belt rule for school buses. NHTSA points out that small school buses, defined as those with a weight of less than 10,000 pounds, are required to have lap-and-shoulder belts. The agency asserts that larger buses are safer than the smaller ones because the seats are high-backed and padded.
Texas Seat Belt Rule
The real reason for not requiring seat belts on the larger buses may be a perception that it would be too expensive. NHTSA estimates that it would cost from $5,485 to $7,346 to equip each large bus with seat belts.
The lack of a federal rule makes state rules on bus safety even more important. Texas does require seat belts on school buses. California does as well.
On a national level, however, schoolchildren are being subjected to an unconscionable cost/benefit analysis that sells them short.
