Clark, Perdue & List's Blog

Statistics indicate that school buses travel 4.3 billion miles each year in this country. School Transportation News (www.stnonline.com), the largest web site on pupil transportation, reports that approximately 475,000 yellow school buses provide transportation daily, and approximately 25 million elementary and secondary school children ride school buses twice a day on a daily basis, nationwide.

That being the case, and considering that they carry the most precious of cargos, why aren't safety restraints mandatory in school buses? While federal law now requires three-point lap/shoulder restraints on all newly manufactured small buses weighing less than 10,000 lbs., the same is not true for those that carry the most students--the larger buses that weigh 25,000, or more lbs. In 1987, New York became the first state to require a two-point lap belts system on new school buses. Only two other states, New Jersey and Florida, have since followed suit. California is currently the only state to require a three-point lap/shoulder belt restrain on large school buses.

The federal government considers traveling on a school bus during the normal school commute to be nine times more safe than traveling in other passenger vehicles. The National Safety Council maintains that the national school bus accident rate is 0.01 for every 100 million miles traveled, compared to 0.96 for other passenger vehicles. An average of 6 children are fatally injured inside a school bus every year

Safety experts attribute the safety to the size and design of the buses, such as the shock absorbing backrests and the compartmentalized seating. But if these buses are, indeed, the safest mode of transportation to school, why not make them even safer, asks such proponent groups as the National Coalition for School Bus Safety (www.ncsbs.org)? It heartily endorses combined lap/shoulder belts and encourages the use of lap belts over no restraints at all.

But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration points to studies that indicate that riding a school bus to school is safer than going on foot, by bicycle or in a parent's car. According to the NHTSA's Fatal Analysis Reporting System, approximately 600 school age children are killed annually while riding to and from school in other passenger vehicles--mostly automobiles.

A 2002 NHTSA study cautioned that while shoulder belts could provide some benefit, children are particularly apt to wear them incorrectly, such as under the arm, which effectively increases the risk of injury. Even school bus drivers have been heard to complain that seat belts would increase the risk of injury from children misusing them as weapons, or in horseplay.

And, of course, there is the issue of money. Opponents argue that making seat belts mandatory will only serve to increase the cost of transportation, without a corresponding increase in safety. In addition to the expenses of installing the safety belts themselves, a three point restraint would reduce the seating capacity and necessitate the purchase of more buses cites the 2002 NHTSA study. Driving up the cost of school bus transportation, it concluded, might well cause a greater number of injuries and deaths to children forced to find alternative means of transportation.

These seemingly logical arguments are fatuous. One avoidable death or injury to a child on a school bus is too many-particularly if that one child is yours. No parent should want to play the school buss lottery with their children, and given the high priority that we give to consumer safety in this country, there is no reason that they should.

We urge you to contact your state senator and representative and the enactment of a school buss seatbelt law in Ohio. To contact your state senator, go to http://www.senate.state.oh.us/. To contact your state representative, go to http://www.house.state.oh.us/index.html.