Why aren't there seatbelts on buses?

Question

Why aren't there seatbelts on buses?

Answer 1

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because buses are bigger than cars. when you run into a car head-on, you dont feel it.

Answer 2

the law does not require.

Answer 3

what a great idea. I'm amazed this has never been brought up before

Answer 4

day hav dem on my bus.,., but my bus is prolly a little shorter :D

Answer 5

because kids aren't worth much.

Answer 6

Because the law doesn't require them. Buses don't even require that you sit, or that you even have a place to sit.

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School buses use a passive restraint system called compartmentalization. It includes high back seats and padding everywhere. In case of an accident, It lets them rattle around in their little padded compartments. It is designed to protect children without seat belts.

Answer 7

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 8

One reason seat belts are not required on school buses is that the greater weight and mass of a school bus means that passengers are less vulnerable in a school bus than in an automobile, and they sit above the usual point of impact. Another is the school bus passengers are not seated near doors or large window openings, so they are not likely to be thrown from the vehicle. Protection from ejection is a primary function of automobile seat belts.

But the main reason is that school buses incorporate a passive restraint system called compartmentalization, which is designed to protect children without seat belts.

Compartmentalization works equally well for one, two or three students per seat. Today's 39-inch wide standard seats may contain three small children or two large ones or any combination in between. Arranging seat belts to properly handle any combination is difficult, if not impossible; the best known solution with seat belts is to restrict each seat to two students and two belts, which has the disadvantage of sharply reducing the carrying capacity of bus fleets.

Also, compartmentalization works whether students have fully developed abdominal areas or not. Conventional seat belts, which are lap restraints only, are not suitable for small children (under 8 years of age) whose abdominal area and bone structure are not adequately developed to take the force of a lap belt alone. They need the help of chest harnesses also, which adds to the complexity of a proper safety belt solution.

Answer 9

because who ever built that bus didn't install seatbelts. which they should have put in seat belts.

Answer 10

Because the backs of the seats are high and public buses have handles to grab. You're more likely to smack forward into the high seat back in case of an accident.