Tight Restraints D
uring an economic recession, customers often take a wait-and-see approach with major purchases, and it is no different for school bus customers, especially when the
item is not mandated. In 1987, New York was the first state to pass legislation requiring two-point lap seat belts on school buses, followed by New Jersey, Lou- isiana and Florida. Since then, California and Texas passed laws requiring three-point, lap-shoulder belts. After learning of recent school-bus crashes in
Old Bridge, N.J., including one in May that injured several children, one New Jersey lawmaker is not con- tent to wait and see whether lap belts are enough to protect bus occupants the next time around. In June, Sen. Sam Tompson introduced a bill (S.2830) that would require all new school buses to include both lap and shoulder seat belts. Under current state law, school buses are required to have only lap belts. Efforts to get seat belts installed on school buses began in the 1970s, according to Art Yeager, another seat-belt advocate from the Garden State. A retired dentist, Yeager has promoted school-bus safety for some 40 years as a leader of the Physicians
62 School Transportation News August 2013
for Automotive Safety and the National Coalition for School Bus Safety. He has testified before Congress and state legislatures, and gained recognition from the National Transportation Safety Board, National Safe Kids, National PTA and the state of New Jersey. “With the Old Bridge accident, it will be very
interesting to find out if students were wearing their seat belts — and whether the kids wearing belts rode through that spinning accident with better results,” he noted. Yeager said cost is the main reason the school-bus
industry has resisted widespread adoption of seat belts. Generally, a new school bus equipped with seat belts runs about $100,000. He added that the key to reducing the price lies in lobbying NHTSA to add a national standard for lap-shoulder belts for large bus- es as well as the smaller Type A buses that are already required to have them. “If it could be achieved nationally, then the entire
production of new buses would have three-point belts. Cost would go down substantially if every bus had to have them because it would be a production item,” said Yeager.
School bus seat manufacturers report heightened interest in lap-shoulder belts and integrated child seats as affordability improves WRITTEN BY MICHELLE FISHER
£ Inspecting three- point seat belts is part of the pre-trip inspection process for bus drivers in states that mandate two- or three-point restraints on all school buses.
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