Are we really secure?
As posted in the August 21, 2009 edition of The Hamilton Mountain News; written by Scott Marshall:
http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/news/article/186072
For our entire lives we work on becoming secure. We want to be secure in our jobs, be financially secure and secure with who we are as a person. We should also be secure while we drive. As a nation, we do a good job by wearing our seatbelts regularly. Unfortunately, not all of the vehicles we ride in have seatbelts.
I had the pleasure of going on a school trip with my 2 daughters at the end of the school year. As for most school trips, we took the school bus. During this trip I paid close attention to the young kids, the teachers and the bus driver. As I also suspected, the wheels on the bus do go round and round and the people on the bus do go up and down. There was nothing holding the kids in place. Just like most kids, these kids were excited about the school trip and were bouncing around.
I’ve heard and read many times how there is additional padding in the back of the seat so as to protect the passenger from serious injury if they move forward. This isn’t good enough. The metal framing around the windows, plus the glass itself, can cause serious injury to a child. While we were on our 35 minute excursion, I watched the driver concentrate on his driving, but not check his mirror very often to see what his passengers were doing. This is a good thing because that distraction alone can cause the driver to make serious driving errors. He needed to concentrate on his driving and I’m glad he was. The problem was the lack of restraints for the passengers.
I recently read how 3 kids were injured when the school bus rolled over. There’s nothing to keep the kids secure in their seats if this happens. I know the roll over is a rare event for school buses, but my concern is a sudden stop or swerve. It’s obvious to me that these passengers can be seriously injured on the bus. On our school trip, I saw how the kids were sitting; on the front edge of the seat, or sitting sideways to talk with their friend. A sudden change of direction would mean that child would smack into the window, across the aisle or into a metal frame. These types of injuries can be prevented.
We do many things now to protect our kids. We ensure they wear a helmet when they ride their bike and skateboard. We never did that as a kid. We supervise them at the park a lot longer in life than we used to. So if were changing with the times, why not change the safety features in the school bus? Considering all of the safety features we now have in our passenger vehicles, why not move into those changes for school buses?
We need to protect our future; our kids. I think it’s time to install seatbelts in these buses. After all, as adults we should know better.
Hey Scott,
I remember when I was in Elementary School and had to take the bus to and from school everyday. We actually had seat belts on our bus, but were told that we didn’t have to use them. I never understood why. The first thing I do when I get in my car is put my seat belt on. I couldn’t imagine driving without it.
It should be a habit for all passengers to put on their seatbelt, but we first have to make sure a setbelt is available.
All buses. School buses are a priority of course, but all buses need them. You can be on a tour bus for hours, or a commuting bus from one city to another, school buses are generally only a 15-20 minute ride, over an hour in rare cases.
What would a kid do in a rollover? Hopefully hang on the seat in front with all their grip, then when it stopped rolling letting go would land on the padded parts. I know its not enough. It’s probably a financial thing to add belts to 40 plus seats, and until its made a law, the manufacturers of the buses are not going to install them.
As for Stephanie’s bus, I’d like to know which school bus company did have them. I’ve certainly never seen any.
Every small school bus I’ve seen (“small” being under ~4.5 tonnes) had lap belts at all seating positions.
The big ones usually don’t, and the debate on whether they should has been going on for a while.
It comes up often enough that the NHTSA has an FAQ page about the studies they’ve done on the subject:
http://www.nhtsa.gov/Vehicle+Safety/Seat+Belts/Seat+Belts+on+School+Buses+–+May+2006
Compartmentalization, in a heavy vehicle, works a lot better than might intuitively be expected.