How come children who ride school buses with no seatbelt...?

Question

are less likely to die, then those who ride in a car with a seatbelt??

Yesterday I saw the news, and there were kids riding a school bus and the bus crashed really hard, but none of them were hurt or got killed. And then a car crashed, the people in the car WERE wearing seat belts, but they died anyways....I don't get it?!!?? Aren't seat belts suppose to help you NOT die?

Answer 1

Compartmentalization, a concept seen frequently on commercial airplanes, involves seating passengers in rows of padded seats with cushioned backs.

The belief is that during frontal or rear impact, the most common types of wrecks involving school buses, passengers would either be pushed back into their seats or thrown forward into the padded backs of the row ahead.

The use of seat belts might require stiffer seats, which would negate the theory of compartmentalization. It is also feared that some students would receive internal injuries from seat belts through a process called submarining, the tendency for a body to slide downwards during impact.

Seat belts on school buses may also hamper rescue or evacuation efforts, as adults or older students may have to spend precious minutes unbuckling young or disoriented passengers.

Unruly students could also use the heavy buckles as makeshift weapons, creating even more of a safety hazard.

There is also the argument that seat belts would only protect passengers of school buses during unusual events such as roll-overs or flips, not other possible accidents such as fires or submersion.

Considering the expense of retrofitting current school buses or replacing entire fleets with approved seat belt systems, the benefits of seat belt use do not currently outweigh the liabilities.

Answer 2

It comes down to basic physics.  In a collision, the vehicle with the smaller mass will get most of the energy of the collision.  Thus large vehicles passengers have less injuries.

Buses don't have seat belts because of their weight and size this is true for private, public and school buses.  That in general is enough protection against a collision.  

One thing I totally expect to see is if these beer-cans-on-wheels electric cars get more and moer popular, the insurance will go up for them when it is shown they have a higher fatality rate since they are lighter.  

Electrical car hitting a bus -- man I think it would just mess up the paint job of the bus.

Answer 3

This has nothing to do with seatbelts. The bus is just too big and needs to crash really hard in order for someone inside it to get hurt. The car is very small and the smallest crash f'cks it up.

Answer 4

It's supposed to be a safety feature in case the bus becomes submerged in water or has a fire. When people wear seat belts in cars, and still get injured, it's due to the small size or poor crash ability of the car.

Answer 5

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration argues that seat belts aren't the most effective way to protect passengers on school buses. Instead the big yellow beasts employ something called "compartmentalization."

Think back to your days on the good ol' school bus. Remember how those rigid green seats were wedged closer together than on even the cheapest no-frills airline? That's compartmentalization in action. Sitting in "strong, closely-spaced seats that have energy-absorbing high seat backs," passengers are effectively protected from crashes. Of course, the method can't prevent all injuries, but the NHTSA argues it's the best possible solution. Several studies have shown seat belts would provide "little, if any, added protection."

School districts are permitted to add seat belts to buses, but they also must make sure the seat belts are used properly. And as anyone who's ever ridden on a bus full of elementary school children knows, that's no easy task.

Answer 6

there supposed to help you

the car was smaller then the truck, thats why they got hurt

Answer 7

Bus is a lot bigger than a car.

Answer 8

it all depends on what they crash into, a small car hitting an suv will be totalled, but a bus hitting an suv will total the suv.  Also, the padded seats do help.  And it is less likely for the bus to flip.  The buses are designed to be tanks.  The kids are more likely to be hurt if they are standing and walking around, but if they are sitting the seats do protect them (in many cases.  Also, with a front end collision, the force has to go through the engine, and several yards of metal to even get the kids.

I do think there should be seat belts, with emergency releases in case of fire or going into a river, but that would cost more.

Answer 9

I have always wondered that, I mean come on, no seatbelts.

Pros

1.  It will help control the children and ensure they remain seated.

2.  It could save their lives in an accident

ummm...  can't come up with cons for putting seatbelts in the buses, just that it will cost the bus companies money, oh well.

They make our children wear helmets for everything they do in life now, they put restrictions on what they can drive, we have become a helmet head generation so what's with the no seatbelts??

Answer 10

I think you don't need seat belts because of the way the bus is designed. In a car if you were to fly forward you would probably hit a window, in a bus you would just go like a foot and a half and hit the seat in front of you which probably wouldn't do much damage. Also the seats are all padded kind of, and there are no weird tings like handles on the back of them to run into.

Answer 11

A bus is huge, you're less likey to get hurt because you probably hit something smaller than you vehicle. But in a car, if you smash into a tree, it's a lot bigger than you. It also depends on speed and all of that.

Answer 12

idk. but me and my friends would stand when the bus driver wasn't looking. it was so fun!