Seat Belts on School Buses

[pdub]

This one's hard to write. I'll do my best, but it comes from the heart and soul and I just have to do it, don't want to upset anybody, I never do want to.

I've tried in the past few weeks to not turn on the local news, but I've found that everybody at work is talking about big events I knew nothing about. Since I didn't turn it on, and since I don't have a smart phone in my hand 16 hours a day, like most folks do these days, I was totally ignorant. I didn't know Gatlinburg was on fire until the next morning. I didn't know a tornado hit Athens until the next morning.

But I did know there was a horrific school bus crash in Chattanooga. That was national news, caught that one on the home page. The images of the bus bent around a tree, lying on its side, the roof of the bus contacted the tree. Kids were killed and injured, you can imagine that the press is going after that bus driver. and they are. They still are, that's been a week or so ago.

So for whatever reason I turned the local news on the TV this afternoon, there it was again. The press was all over that school bus driver for driving reckless, and whatever. Maybe he was, they sure make it sound like it. This guy's trial is happening in the press because the public is outraged over kids getting killed and hurt. I'm pretty outraged too, even though Unit and I have no kids. But the press is MORE than feeding the outrage. It's pretty obvious that the guy driving that bus is going to prison when the smoke clears. And in everyone's mind he deserves that,, with the one photo of the bus wreck, but the press won't leave it alone.

They got through with the latest details which were really nothing more than we already knew about it, and the next story was a segue...."This tragedy has raised the issue of seat belts on school buses once again....."

I'd watched 5 minutes of local news and that was it for me. Seat belts on school buses. There they are talking the latest whatever-it-takes from a media standpoint. They are brainless, they are reading from a prepared script.

And don't get me wrong - I'm the world's biggest advocate of a seat belt. I'm a stickler for it.

I absolutely agree that seat belts on school buses would be a great thing. But all of us have been stuck behind school buses running a route. STOP sign flips out, red lights flashing, kids get on board, they clear the threshold and get sat down, bus goes again until the next intersection.

WHO, what adult is going to make those little kids fasten and tighten a seat belt on a school bus? Especially down here where it's just about a custom by genetics to not wear a seat belt anyhow? They're not even raised that way for the most part. WHO (the bus driver?) is going to make sure those kids put that seat belt on and tighten it, and then make sure they do not unhook it the whole time? That's impossible. It would take 4 hours to run a 30-minute bus route at that rate. And then the kid simply unfastens it while the bus is in motion.

[Barry Donovan]

pdub,
like aircraft and tractor trailers and the new ford f350s..
they need adults who give a concern for all around them at all times.

my bus hit a corner of a bridge once, 30 years ago, I was a teen. The whole back of the bus bounced up off the ground, kids flying.
that bus driver cried her eyes out, shaking, refused to get back in the driver's seat.

Stuff happens anyway.

[corvettedad]

Don't get me started on school buses without seat belts, bad enough that the average bus doesn't but the handicap buses don't have them!! That's just plain stupid! I put John in his wheelchair just so he'd be strapped down! I just don't get it, I get a ticket if he's not wearing one but the state put's him on a bus without seatbelts!!!
Disclaimer,
This is my opinion from my personal experience.

[silver_bullet]

I realize the fact that it is not just a matter of bolting in seat belts... it will have to be an engineered system...someone has to think outside the box on this one... maybe the NTSB needs to fully dissect the crash bus and see what other issues are underlying, like the roll over support and side impact resistance of the cabin...if you really look at it...we send kids to school in a box van with windows... maybe MP&C can shed some light on the actual construction of these behemoths...

[Loren]

Seat belt wearing would be impossible to enforce on a school bus. The visibility of the bus and professionalism of the driver are supposed to prevent collisions in the first place and usually do.

A long long time ago...travelling with my parents/brother through San Francisco and choosing to take a city bus instead of a taxi, we had piles of luggage etc. and sat in the very back with it all stacked up. The driver was a maniac...hauled ass everywhere, wide-open throttle, hard on the brakes. At one point we hit a dip and bump crossing some street, being well behind the rr axle the force of it threw all of us up into the air, luggage went everywhere, we were all literally airborne and I landed hard in the aisle. Recovering then looking forward at the rr view mirror, I could see the driver watching us...he saw me meet his gaze and turned away. It was all on purpose, he knew the route, he was a f--n psychopath and this was his idea of fun. That's the kind of guy we are dealing with here in the recent incident, the same type guy who runs an aircraft into the mountains on purpose to indulge his little personal mommy-aren't-I-special fantasies. You can't build a tough enough passenger compartment for this, you can only hope to weed out the type driver and it sounds like the school-bus company was doing a piss-poor job of it.

[Deaf Bob]

I have a 57 Bluebird.. Interior is the same damn thing as a 2010 bus! Mine has double steel roof..
To put seatbelts in will be a nightmare.. Seat mount retractors... Maaaybe.
That driver in Tenn has had driving problems I feel should have disqualified him The main thing I have problem with is being allowed to drive when #1. kids complained he was reckless, #2.. bystanders at bus stops say he speeds ..
Could it have been avoided? HELL YEAH!

Bus seats will hurt kids no matter if they are buckled in or not.. Being buckled in will keep them from flying and crash landing..

I have been nailed after my seat belts ripped out.. They HURT!
In derby cars, you want the belts snug, but loose enough to look back.. If they are too snug, you can't drive, too loose, you get bruised or belt burnt

What is the answer? Would more kids have been killed/hurt because the lap belts "rips" them in half? How about hanging by the belts while the bus is on it's side?

[SuperBuickGuy]

It's been a long time since I read it, so I'm not sure where I saw this - but they've determined that seat belts actually would make the bus less safe for kids. It's not compliance, it's the way the seats are designed and what happens in the accidents. Basically, while it seems like common sense that seat belts would be good on buses, they found the opposite. My mom was a school bus driver for a couple decades, and says the same thing... that it'd make the bus less safe.

In that crash, I think a full review is a good idea. Someone suggested that he was late - there should be no such thing with a school bus... but with budget crunches and all that stuff, bus schedules, stops and all that attend them simply loses every single time. For me, it drives me nuts that buses don't go on side streets anymore to pick up kids around here - so basically, it blocks the very people who pay their taxes from getting to work... and it's less safe, but the budget doesn't allow for enough buses. That said, I can't imagine the hell my parents would get if kids today rode their bikes 5 miles to school (all before helmets, bike lanes, and the roads were full of something called "a log truck")

[STINEY]

Public School system is Nucking Futz...........department of education dictates to systems what to implement or withholds funding, which is taken (stole) from the local level and redistributed in the name of fairness.

The busing system is simply the low man on the totem pole. No money for real drivers, so the bottom of the barrel takes the jobs, and usually just to satisfy work requirements for future welfare payments. (again with stolen money from taxpayers, redistributed in the name of fairness)

Very good friend of mine has been in charge of the Bus Garage at a couple of different local schools, and another friend is in charge of a third.

The stories are horrendous. And of course, nobody is willing to discipline any of the brats, so that adds a whole 'nother facet of degradation to the mix.

My oldest rides the bus, to and from unless he has practice afterwards. No real trouble.


My youngest, well we don't let him ride the bus anymore. Same driver, same route, different kids by a 3 year gap. Horrible, horrible experience, hence me dropping him off and mom picking him up.

We've had knife attacks, fires set, naked kids crawling under seats front to rear and back again, fireworks lit, wounds from scissors, girls being seriously molested, defecation and urination on bus floor, controlled substances abuse, seats torn to literal shreds in under 20 minutes, etc.

Oh yeah. Our route is one of 2 for our rural district that swings into the city to pick up the open-enroll kids. Yeah, the ones that got kicked out of the city school, and the government gives "extra" funding to the rural schools to take in. All in the name of fairness, once again.

Stupid freaking political correctness. Expel the brats. Worked for our and earlier generations, set an example of what happens and watch behavior improve.




Anyways, yeah. Make 'em wear seatbelts. At this point it is all simply entertainment, let's see how government implements that one. So do they write the welfare parents a ticket if their kid isn't wearing their belt on the bus? Makes sense, then there can be more welfare funding coverage to "assist" them in paying the tickets.

Government entities funding other Government entities. Nope, don't see how that can go awry................

[studemax]

It's been a long time since I read it, so I'm not sure where I saw this - but they've determined that seat belts actually would make the bus less safe for kids. It's not compliance, it's the way the seats are designed and what happens in the accidents. Basically, while it seems like common sense that seat belts would be good on buses, they found the opposite. My mom was a school bus driver for a couple decades, and says the same thing... that it'd make the bus less safe.

^^^^ YES - what SBG said! ^^^^ I read the same thing down through the years.

Don't give in to the liberal hysteria like P did.

[dieselhead]

"Seat belt wearing would be impossible to enforce on a school bus."

Baloney! My kids and grandkids were taught to wear their seatbelts as soon as they were big enough not to be in a car seat. Today we have the technology to equip school busses with seat belt monitors that would alert the bus driver if a kid isn't belted in. If a kid gets on the bus and refuses to buckle up then off the bus he goes. If school bus seat designs are dangerous then replace them with safer seats. My local school district has lots of money they could spend on safer busses. Anybody that thinks it's safer to be flying around inside of a school bus or out the window during a crash is not thinking very logically. I've known adults who actually thought they could just stick their arms out in a head on collision and stop themselves from hitting the steering wheel or dash. I always told them to try running full speed into a brick wall with their arms out in front of them and see what happens. They would only be running maybe 10mph but they would probably break their arms and maybe their face.

[SuperBuickGuy]

So here's a video of crash testing school buses - by people who want seat belts; to say it's not compelling would be an understatement - look for the crash where the seat-belt goes flying (blue lap belt) and compare the result to the dummy next to him. The seats are designed to catch the kid no matter how they're sitting - and they do a very good job of it.

I think its cool how the seats are designed to work like a catcher's mitt no matter how the kid is situated.

[STINEY]

If a kid gets on the bus and refuses to buckle up then off the bus he goes.

You figure out the logistics in the real world on how to implement this notion...............and you will be a very rich man indeed.

In todays nanny-state world, it is simply not that simple anymore. School districts are on the hook liability-wise from the moment your kid sets foot on the bus.

Every action taken by the district is fair game for a lawsuit.