Why do School Buses not have seatbelts?

Question

Why do School Buses not have seatbelts?

Answer 1

I hate to say that's it's too expensive for the school system, but that's probably why.

Answer 2

Because of the sheer mass of a bus, when a bus is involved in a crash, the dynamic forces to the occupants are minimal.  This may not be true if the bus were to hit a brick wall at high speed or be impacted by a semi.  But, for the most part a seatbelt is useless in a bus.  Also, buses are designed to break in half in case of a side impact.  This prevents the occupants and the vehicle from having to absorb much of the impact.  From time to time you will hear about a tour bus that drove off the road and rolled over.  In this case it would have  been useful to have seatbelts in place.  However, they would be hard to enforce and the bus lobby groups would go nuts.

Answer 3

they do.. kids just dont wear them

Answer 4

School Buses are designed with high back seats that are heavily padded.  So if the bus is in an accident the passengers will hit the seat  and cause little damage to the passengers.  Not only that the district would have to hire bus aides to make sure that they stay in them at all times and  be ready to cut the seat belts in the case of a roll over and this means more state funding.  On the large buses  72 passenger buses your looking at a minimum of 3 aides.  But believe it or not the passengers will use them for weapons (hitting one another with them.).

Answer 5

Im 13 and i ride a School bus to & from home every day for 3 yrs and(this is all the same driver causethey dont hav enough bus drivers) in that three yrs the bus has:

Caught on fire

Ran in to a car

hit another car            i live in memphis

hit a stop sighn        

was hit in the back cause my bus driver ran a red light one after noon

Almost fliped cause She ran another red light

on all of those excpt fire having seat belts would hav been nice!

But SCS schools cant afor them

Answer 6

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 7

what a great question. I'm amazed no one has ever asked about this.