why don't school buses require seatbelts usage, while other passenger vehicles require seatbelts?

Question

Please don't tell me it is safer for the children to ride in a bus than a car, or that schools can't afford it.

Answer 1

when i was about in elementary school, they made the smaller kids wear seatbelts...or the mentally challenged kids wear them..other than that no one else had to wear them...which i thought at the time cool!...but in all reality it is just as dangerous for seatbelts not to be worn on busses as it is to not wear setbelts in cars...if a bad accident were to happen, those children could be seriuosly injured or worse.

Answer 2

Well, since you do not want to hear facts like school buses are 172 times safer than a passenger car, and there are less than 10 fatalities per year in school bus accidents vs. over 750 fatalities in school related accident with modes of transportation other than school buses, I guess we will have to go another route for you.

Picture yourself a school bus driver of 48 children wearing seat belts. God forbid, a fire breaks loose. Would you be fast enough to help 48 children out of their safety belts before the interior of the bus is engulfed with black smoke? By the way you might have about 20-30 seconds to accomplish this.

At this time there are only lap belts available for school buses. Children under 12 are not developed enough to handle the stress of a lap belt on their hip. Even if they were to handle the stress of the belt on their hip, the frontal impact of their head and neck with the seat in front of them would surely cause spinal damage. A high impact collision would most likely do more damage to a child wearing a seat belt than not wearing a seat belt.

School Buses have been hit by trash trucks, dump trucks, freight trains, and all kinds of other heavy equipment and to everyones surprise children walk away without wearing a seat belt. School buses are built and designed to withstand severe accidents. You go ahead and take your chances on having kids in a Volvo with their seat belts on, and go head on with a concrete truck at 50 MPH. I'll keep my children on a school bus with a trained driver and know that they have the best chances of getting to school and home safely.

By the way. They are developing and testing 3 point safety belts on shool bus seats. The cost of a safety belt is not the issue, it's the 33% more buses school districts would have to purchase that is the issue. You see, you can only get 2 children per seat on a school bus with seat belts, while you can get 3 on a seat without seat belts. But you didn't want to hear that...........

Answer 3

It is a safety issue. If the bus were on fire and people were unconscious, they would not be able to get them all out. They have weighed the good and the bad. Although seat belts would eliminate alot of injuries, there would be more deaths while wearing a seat belt in a serious accident. The bus driver is only one person, so they have to depend on most people getting themselves out.

Answer 4

needless to say I do, and that i think of maximum persons sense an identical way. it relatively is incredibly stupid that college buses at the instant are not equiped with seatbelts. this is a regulation for each driving force and rider to placed on seatbelts yet no longer on college buses, it in basic terms does no longer make experience.

Answer 5

i've been on many school buses that seatbelts. its a cost issuse. schools can't afford to pay for seatbelts in their buses when a massive number of schools can't even afford enough books for all students. there are schools in southern california that don't even have A/C and we are worried about seatbelts? school buses have one of the lowest accident rates of all passenger vehicals. not to mention that in order to really make those kids fly in one of those things you have to be either a really vehical, or going really really fast

Answer 6

It simply has not been required but NHTSA is rethinking that after numerous on-bus videos have shown children being bounced around dangerously during accidents. I believe the harnesses and belts will soon be required just as they are in regular passenger autos and trucks.

Answer 7

Your absolutely correct? Why don't public buses or subway trains have belts? Bureaucrats figure all on board are expendable. Bureaucrats also don't see this as a platform to get elected or reelected.

Answer 8

They are an optional extra. If your school doesn't have them, it means whoever ordered the buses, was too cheap to spend the extra money. See how much they care about your kid's safety?

Answer 9

Bureaucrats don't want to spend money on that! Their job is to save the school system money,,there-by justifying their large raises! :-)=