School busses and seat belts?

Question

We are so programmed now to always put your baby, toddler, preschoolers, and now grade school kids in some kind of car seat/booster. This is good. I wouldn't think not to put my 2 year old or 6 month old in a car with out one. Now they enter Kindergarten and ride the bus to school...with nothing. No car seat, no seat belts or anything. Does this seem right? What is your opinion?

Answer 1

As a PTA we raised funding when our schools buses were ordered to make sure they all had seat belts.  The schools didn't have it in their budget and we felt one childs injury prevention would out weigh the efforts of fund raising.  It tooks us a couple of years to get all the school buses retro fitted with the belts.

To our dismay and disappointment within 5 years the belts had been cut, broken, torn out etc.  

The buses have higher backs and I believe the front seats of newer buses come with them but they try to build in safety to the bus design I guess because they knew something us moms didn't realize.  1) First you have to get them to put them on and 2) you have to keep them from being abused and intentionally torn up and 3) you have to have an ongoing budget to keep up with them.  

I think in districts that have bus monitors they would have lasted longer and been used more effectively, in our school we didn't have regular monitors.  

My answer is yes children should be belted in. It helps with driver distraction, fights, children changing seats.  I also believe that bus seating should be assigned.  In case of accident knowing who is sitting there and whether they are on the bus or not is of vitial importance in an emergency.

Some schools check off who gets on the bus in the morning, that is turned into the office at the school campus, if the children didn't show up for class a truancy officer is dispatched.  And then in the afternoon, kids are checked off uploading and as they get off the bus.  I think this is a good idea.

We had a student stuck on a bus overnight.  The driver drove back, didn't throughouly check the bus, and locked the bus up.  The child had fell asleep and didn't wake up until later in the night and couldn't get out.  The bus barn was closed and the parents frantically called trying to get ahold of the school to find out what happened to their child.  They ended up getting ahold of the PTA (me in this case).  We went to the bus barns supervisors home and went to the bus barn and retrieved the frightened child.

It turned into a big mess of course and after that we had checklists on and off.  

Whether we did any good or not with the seat belts, we made a statement.  We the parents feel like this is an important issue.  We banded together and did something about it.  My kids are in their 20s now, I would have thought by now the buses would come standard with seat belts guess not.  

good luck.

Answer 2

it's not only expensive to add seat belts but it would be hard to enforce with younger kids who have trouble buckling themselves. I mean it's not as though the bus driver can sit in the middle of the road and go buckle up all the kids as they get on. Many younger kids in kindergarten/first grade cannot buckle themselves

Of course it would be nice if school buses had seat belts but you also have to weigh the risks on both sides as well. Let's say the bus has an accident and is turned on it's side or on fire. How is the bus driver who could be hurt themself, going to help all those children get out of their seatbelts and safely off the bus?

Answer 3

I have been thinking about this to for so long, and I'm so gland so one agrees with me. Their always saying you should have a seat belt on and make your children have a booster seat and they don't have a seat belt on :school buses or normal buses,trains,trams and so on.

WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

Answer 4

I'm not sure where you live, but in Illinois, specifically my school district 68, all the buses have seat belts. The bus aide makes sure that ever student has their seat belt on prior to the bus driver taking off. This is something that needs to be implemented in every state and school district. It might be costly, but you can't tell me that whatever it will cost is to expensive when it comes to saving the lives of our children!

Answer 5

It does seem like a good idea. However if there wer to be an accident or a fire or something, a child maybe stuck in a seat belt and prevented from getting out. Also, within a short period of time, they most likely will be torn, ripped and all that jazz. It would be a lot of money to spend on that.

Answer 6

Oh my gosh I have been worring about this ever since my son has also started school. He is in second grade now. I think they should pass to be a law to have seatbelts in school busses. I mean were I live we have really bad winters with lots of snow and ice once it starts melting and it's that much more dangerous for our children. We as mothers really need to look into this further I'm sure we could get alot of people to stand behind us if we try a little bit. I just don't really know were to start from.Do we get a petition and send to who? We can get it done if we find out were we need to start.So i'm so on board for this. I would like to know our children out there are safe when they ride the bus. My children don't ride it currently but on school trips they do and it's just as important to me if they were riding it home everyday.

Answer 7

If we put our kids in a vehicle without seat belts and drove them home from school, we would be ticketed or arrested. But the schools do it every day. Go to your school board, your senators and representatives and demand they put your child's safety first.

Answer 8

This doesn't make sense to me either.  Seat belts should be manditory on buses!  You see so many accidents where the kids are just thrown around or out the window...yikes!

Answer 9

Of course it doesn't make sense! But adding seat belts to all of the buses would be too expensive, and buses overall are designed for safety of children somehow - it would be just wrong for people to put kids lives in jeopardy every single day to go to school.

Answer 10

I know, this is so crazy. Son rode school bus all the way through elementary school, now he uses city transit for high school.

In our school division, many attempts have been made to have seatbelts installed in buses - by parents, through PTA and trustees. However, the bus company always comes back with statistics that it's more dangerous to have the kids belted in. I just never understood this.

Try approach your PTA or school principal about this.