What do you think ??????

Question

with the recent school bus crash in minnestota do you think that school buses should have seatbelts and the children need to use them??

Answer 1

I'm not level 2, so I can't rate, but:

the_manic_mechanic's answer...

He was spot on - I can't figure who gave him the thumbs down.

It's all about the egress.  Bus is on its side, 42 kids need to get out, diesel motor's on fire in the front...  No seat belts on full sized school buses was NOT an oversight - it was intentional.  Time will tell if it remains the way to go.

Answer 2

yes I have always thought that it would be a good idea

Answer 3

*Sigh*

It's always the ones who know the least about something that are the first to be "experts" on the subject...

The first half of the reason is because school buses are designed using a concept called "compartmentalization."

High padded seatbacks very close together both longitudinally and laterally.  Kids don't have enough room to accelerate enough to cause serious injury under MOST accident circumstances. Unless they crack heads against each other or are directly subjected to crushing force such as would be applied by a semi-truck or train, they're usually gonna survive what would kill an automobile driver.

The other half of the reason is that seatbelts would impede or even negate one of the most important aspects of bus safety-The ability to evacuate quickly in the event of fire or dangerous positioning, such as stalled on railroad tracks in front of an approaching train or landing in deep water such as a canal or river.

If you're asking about school buses-make that double. Picture trying to unbuckle 30 or so hysterical kindergarteners before the train hits. (A bus is NOTHING to a train.) Or the fire gets too intense. (It takes approx. 3 minutes for a 65-passenger conventional chassis bus to be completely engulfed in flames from END to END. (I've watched a couple of them burn.) Nobody can evacuate belted passengers that quickly under those conditions- even with the equipped seatbelt cutter....) Or they all drown because you can't move in water fast enough or even find them all in the murk. At least if they're free to move, they stand a chance of survival by floating up to an air pocket until they can be rescued instead of being trapped in seatbelts.

THAT's why they don't have belts. Buses are far safer than ANY car or SUV or pickup/van on the road because they're HEAVY. They are class B heavy trucks. Cars, SUV's, pickups and vans just BOUNCE RIGHT OFF of them.

(Try THAT with yer little measly Hummby H2).

Passengers on buses sit much higher off the road than do passengers in a car or pickup/SUV, so any of those that happen to hit a bus will usually hit way down on the body skirt UNDER the passenger floor and the force will be dissipated away from the passengers.

Answer 4

Yes, if I need a seatbelt on, they need seatbelts on.

Answer 5

They've done crash tests to see if seat belts would help in crash tests, and found that the leverage on the lower back is WORSE than if there were no seat belt at all.

A student hitting the padded back of a flat bench seat in front of them is much less dangerous than breaking a lower thorasic or lumbaric vertabrae, especially considering that buses aren't the fastest vehicle on the road. there's no way to add shoulder belts on a school bus because of the roof height required for people to walk in/out of the bus.

the issue of evacuating that many students (average of 30 seats on a bus, 2 kids per seat = 60 kids) in an emergency is also VERY important. it would be hard enough to deal with one or two crying, scared little kids, but with that many, they're making each other more hysterical, and less able to unbuckle and escape from a burning bus.

And, does anyone SERIOUSLY think that a bus driver could actually drive anywhere if he had to get 60 kids to buckle their seat belts before he leaves, and during the drive? There's no way.

Answer 6

Yes.........................but it will never happen, the government blames it on cost, they wont do it.

Answer 7

we can use special designe school bus , most area inside it covered by   by fum .

Answer 8

YES...they've been saying this since the 1970's and the old buses will not be fitted with seatbelts....all brand new buses being acquired will have seatbelts

Answer 9

yes and no.  I was talking to a highway patrol officer who is a traffic investigator.  seat belts are not safer in school buses because they can only put in lap belt, if you look at the reason that they now have shoulder belts in cars it is because in an accident people were being paralyzed because there was only a lap belt holding them in.  you cant put shoulder belts school buses  because how would they be attached and be adjusted to fit differ end aged children so they are safe.  also most kids in a bus are not paying attention to whats going on around them they are talking with friends relaxed, they are in almost the same state as a drunk they will be less injured because there body's are relaxed and just go with the flow in an accident, it they are all facing forward strapped in at the waist they will see an accident happening tense up and will end up with severed spines.

Answer 10

OF COURSE, SCHOOL BUSES NEED TO HAVE SEATBELT.

In fact, I still remember the awful tragedy in NYC, which coach bus used for Manhattan-Staten Island Express service. Express bus was going southbound on highway called Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. Since BUS HAD NO SEATBELT, bus driver lost control and hit the divine and lamppost, sending 20 passengers (except driver) flying to dashboard.

City and long-distance buses really need to introduce seatbelt, so people would be safe.

Answer 11

yes i do think that all buses school and city and motor coach need to have seatv belts