Is there a reason school buses do NOT have seat belts?

Question

Is there some sort of safety reason behind it?? It doesn't seem right that there is seat belt laws but school buses don't have seat belts!!

Answer 1

I have 5 kids in school and, of course, I care about their safety on buses, so this is a topic and question that I have researched thoroughly over the past 6 months. Here is what I have found...

Everyone always throws out the money as the a main reason. While I agree funding could certainly be a factor, consider the following. Neither lap nor lap-and-shoulder belts on a bus provide the same type of protection offered in a car. During a head-on collision, the most common type for buses, lap belts alone can increase the risk of injury. On impact, this type of restraint allows a passenger's head to jerk forward, risking severe head and neck injury. Lap AND shoulder belts would require the installation of stiffer seats. These seats could become a source of impact injury. Studies also showed that children can slip downwards when restrained by lap and shoulder belts, risking injury to vulnerable internal organs.

In 1999, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) examined the effect of seat belt installation in buses. They came to the conclusion that seat belts actually would result in head injuries and fatalities. In fact, the NTSB found a relationship between most injuries/deaths and the seating position of the passenger. In these cases, the presence of seat belts would change nothing.

While there is no evidence proving that seat belts on buses save lives, there is reason to worry they MAY CAUSE HARM. During an emergency, seat belts could hinder young children from quickly exiting the bus; they simply could not free themselves. Drivers would be hard pressed to monitor belt usage for every student. And the heavy buckles could be used as weapons.

Studies by federal agencies, including the NTSB, have shown bus construction provides greater safety than seat belts ever could. Comparing the design of a school bus to a car is like comparing apples to oranges. Where belts protect passengers during car collisions, their presence may cause severe injuries on a bus. Seatbelts are only required on small buses weighing less than 10,000 pounds because their design more closely resembles a car. It is ironic, but the reality is that seat belts have no place on most school buses.

Side note: Scott H, it's not quite weekly, but your right, this does get asked alot. But it's still a fair question.

Answer 2

Buses that are 10,000lbs or less have seatbelts in them, but a regular school bus does not. Public transportation buses that have seats like that of a school bus do not require them either. Passenger seating and crash protection, known as "compartmentalization" is required on school buses. Compartmentalization is a passive occupant protection system using the concept of eggs in a carton. The seats must have flexible, enery-absorbent high seat backs. The combination of these seat backs and narrow spacing creates a compartment within which each occupant is confined in a crash....make sense?? Bus transportation, or to be specific, school bus transportation, is 8 times safer than passenger vehicles. Buses are larger and heavier than most other vehicles. The crash forces are distributed throughout the vehicle differently and are experienced by the occupants differently.

Also, when a bus is in an accident, the chassis actually breaks away from the frame to slow the occupant area down faster.

It seems crazy, but NHTSA has strict regulations on buses and has found certain criteria to deem it safe.

Answer 3

Some states do have seats belts, for the most part buses in general don't have seat belts.
Here are a few reasons;
Buses are padded to prevent injury in the event of a accident
In the event of a roll over crash the weight of ones body would make it very difficult to unfasten the seat belt. It is the drivers responsibility to evacuate the bus in the event of a crash and it would waste valuable time to unfasten persons who couldn't help them selves. This would come in to play in the event a bus would end up in the water or involved in a fire.
There are many documented cases in the past few years where buses where involved in crashes, even though there where injuries it would have been worst if seat belts had been used.

Answer 4

On the school buses in Missouri that I used to ride they had seat belts in both sides of the first 5 seats for little kids. I really don't know why they don't for everyone though, probably money...there are a ton of school buses...

Answer 5

School buses probably should have seat belts installed, but due to money issues, it won't happen. However, would school buses be safer? If an accident happened, and the children couldn't get their seat belts off, how would one bus driver quickly unbuckle that many belts? There is a lot to think about concerning this issue.

Answer 6

If you noticed the seat backs on school buses are higher, I was told by the bus driver that they are made that way to be a safety measure if you shot forward and hit yourself on it I guess. It would be pretty close to impossible to enforce kids wearing seat belts in buses.

Answer 7

Many reasons...
If the bus caught on fire and there was like little kids on there that would take a while to undo their seat belts,it wouldn't be safe and plus all the other kids would have to take off their seat belts.
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Also some bad kids might like decide to hit other kids with the seat belt or worse strangle another child.
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And Money.

Answer 8

Here's an article on the National Education Association website that explains the pros and cons of seat belts on school buses.

http://www.nea.org/esphome/issues/seatbelt.html

Ann Kucera
Reference Librarian
Baker College
Auburn Hills, MI

Answer 9

I have seen a few school buses with seat belts but they were really cheap or broken. Maybe they aren't required because it is really unlikely that a kid would go flying through the front window if they are in their seats.

Answer 10

Politics and money. It is a very aggressive argument because it would not double tax the individual. This means that you can get a fundraising ticket for no car seat but not direct your tax dollars towards a child's safety. This type of dichotomy causes tempers to flair because certain people look like idiots by taking both sides of the argument for financial reasons as if the other did not exist.