SPECIAL REPORT
evacuation drills during School Bus Safety Week in October. Te younger the students are when
they learn about seat belts and begin wearing them, Hobbs stressed, the sooner it becomes second nature. “Adding seat belts on a bus where kids
didn’t wear them before is more of a chal- lenge,” he said. “It’s going to take some years.”
THE SEAT BELT DEBATE It also took Hobbs awhile to get used to
the idea of seat belts. Back when DCS only used lap belts, he said he was concerned about children placing them correctly on their bodies so they would not sustain fur- ther injury in an accident. Tis is a major point of contention for those who oppose installing seat belts on school buses.
Te debate over whether seat belts are a
help or a hindrance during a bus fire or roll- over accident, for example, was re-ignited after the September 1989 crash in Alton, Texas, when a truck struck a school bus, causing it to plunge into a flooded roadside gravel pit. Nineteen students drowned and two later died of their injuries. Hobbs said another tragic accident in-
spired the 2007 state law calling for school buses to come equipped with three-point lap/shoulder belts. In March 2006, a mo- torcoach crash killed Ashley Brown and permanently injured Allison Forman, who ultimately lost one of her arms. Te Texas law went one step further
than California’s by including charter and school activity buses. In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is- sued a final rule that updated FMVSS 207, 208, 210 and 222 by requiring all new Type A school buses manufactured on or after Sept. 1, 2011, to be equipped with three- point, lap/shoulder belt systems. NHTSA stopped short of requiring the seat belts on large school buses (more than 10,000 pounds GVWR), instead opting for vol- untary requirements on implementing three-point systems. Under Hobbs’ watch, no DCS school
buses have been involved in a crash seri- ous enough to measure how seat belts perform. While he said he can understand the concerns of seat-belt opponents, he pointed out that, statistically, the risk of bus fires and rollover accidents is “mini- mal” compared to the more common fender-benders. Tere is only one instance Hobbs can re-
member when seat belts created problems on the school bus. While at Houston ISD, he said kids with disciplinary issues on alter- native-school routes used the lap belts as weapons, so they were ultimately removed. “With shoulder belts, because of the
way they’re constructed, you don’t have that same issue,” Hobbs added. “It’s been a change for me because I came from a dis- trict where seat belts weren’t pushed big time. Now I support it.” ■
Check out
stnonline.com/go/902 for details on the NTSB’s investigation of the fatal Alton, Texas, school bus crash.
32 School Transportation News Magazine September 2012
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