Gold: Public should demand bus seat-belt studies

It seems to me…when it comes to child safety, seat belts in school buses pardon the pun, take a back seat. According to a report commissioned by the Connecticut General Assembly, federal law requires seat belts on some school buses. Small school buses weighing less than 10,000 lbs. must have seat belts per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. As of February 2010, larger school buses, which make up about 80 percent of the nation's fleet, are not covered by national regulations. States reserve the right to devise and implement their own school bus seat belt laws.

As of February 2010, only a handful of states, California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas, require seat belts in school buses. Why is this so? The argument put forth by the opponents of requiring seat belts in school buses is that school buses have a much better safety records when compared to private vehicles. School transportation officials that move tens of thousands of students every day in buses without seat belts defend their safety record and cite a national research report to support their position. In a 2002 study of school bus safety by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the group found that riding a bus to school is safer than arriving on foot, by bicycle or in a parent's car.

Even after a 2005 fatal school bus crash in Arlington that resulted in the death of a 9-year-old girl and injured other children in the collision of a large school bus and a garbage truck, officials maintained this position. In February 2008, a school bus accident killed four students and injured others when a van hit a school bus in Minnesota. In January 2009, The Arizona Republic reported that, “… in Phoenix, Arizona, a busload of 45 middle-school students walked away from the twisted metal of an afternoon traffic accident in Phoenix Wednesday after their driver lost control of the school bus and smashed into nearly a dozen vehicles.” Although this accident did not result in any fatalities or serious injuries, 13 vehicles were damaged. These are only a few examples.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, 1,541 people have died in school transportation related crashes since 1997. That averages out to about 140 people per year. Most of those are in the other vehicles involved. However, on average 19 school age children die in those crashes each year. Is 19 too small a number to justify the expense of equipping all school buses with proper seat belts? One would imagine that the parents of those who died would say emphatically no. It appears that, after some sort of risk versus cost analysis, many law makers are not satisfied that it is worth the expenditure. Information from the California Department of Education has estimated that three-point belts would cost $1,500 to $1,800 per vehicle when the school bus seat belt law took effect for new large buses in July 2005.

What about the argument that we know from passenger car experience that these restraints are life-saving? And, in contrast, and in contradiction to the argument against seat belts in school buses, seat belts are required in airplanes where there are relatively few accidents annually as is claimed for school buses?

On the other side of the coin, what about train crashes where seat belts are not required even when horrendous fatalities and injuries occur when these crashes happen albeit with unpredictable frequency? Could seat belts have saved lives?

All methods of transportation, both public and private govern the lives of most people in the U.S. With so many school buses transporting students of all ages during the school year and at other times, it seems strange the public has not demanded more information and study on this issue.

Harvey Gold is a contributing writer at the Stafford County Sun.  Reach him at info@staffordcountysun.com.