Why are there no seatbelts on public transportation and school buses?

Question

Why are there no seatbelts on public transportation and school buses?

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.

One problem many school systems face with the prospect of mandatory seat belt use on school buses is compliance.

The bus driver already has a significant amount of responsibility, so schools would have to hire additional monitors to ride on all the school buses. In light of sexual misconduct concerns, both male and female monitors would have to be hired in order to avoid any allegations of impropriety.

Besides the added expense of hiring qualified monitors, there would also be a question of liability if even one student removed his or her seat belt and became injured as a result.

Answer 2

what a great question. I've only seen it about a hundred times.............