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NHTSA Seeks Lap/Shoulder Belts for All Motorcoach Seating Positions, School Bus Drivers
cause motorcoaches are less regulated by FMVSS and motorcoaches tend to travel at
highway
speeds with tremendous
amounts of energy,” added James Johnson, vice president of business at commercial vehicle safety systems IMMI. “Te mes- sage to the school bus industry is, if you look back over history where the industry has had tragic accidents, many of those have been at highway speeds and on ac- tivity trips. Te principles to pull out of this is, the coaches you are using on activ- ity trips are your highest-risk vehicles. “Tat’s an opportunity to look at the
total risk management and control a large part of that with activity school buses or [school] buses used for activity trips.” Regarding lap/shoulder belts where
If NHTSA has its way, all newly-manufactured motorcoaches will soon be required to be equipped with lap/shoulder seat belts. But don’t expect any new conversation at the federal level on the three- point restraint systems in large school buses.
Public comment period draws to a close this month on a proposed new standard that includes drafting a new definition of the term motorcoach in federal regulations By Ryan Gray
After years of debate within the indus-
try and on the floors of the U.S. House and Senate, federal rulemaking on increased motorcoach passenger protection may be soon on the way. Te National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration followed up on its 2007 Motorcoach
Safety Plan by publish-
ing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in mid-August to require three-point, lap/ shoulder belts at all motorcoach passenger positions and for the driver. NHTSA also wants to require the occupant restraint systems for motorcoach and school bus drivers, and in doing so remove verbiage that allows two-point lap belts. But it added that it would not re-open
the issue of whether or not to require the three-point belts for students on school
buses, instead focusing on motorcoaches with fatality rates that are eight times greater. NHTSA instead stood by its deci- sion to publish standards for the voluntary installation of seat belts in large school bus- es while requiring them to be installed in small school buses starting next October. “NHTSA does not believe that passen-
ger seat belts should be required on large school buses,” the NPRM states. “Instead, the agency believes
that local school
transportation planners should be given the ability to analyze the transportation risks particular to their needs, and to de- cide whether they wish to incur the cost of purchasing large school buses equipped with passenger seat belts.” “Te reason they’re requiring lap/ shoulder belts for motorcoaches is be-
22 School Transportation News Magazine October 2010
Oct10_STN.indb 22 9/14/10 12:17 PM
both school bus and motorcoach driv- ers are concerned, a spokesperson for Bostrom Seating, a manufacturer of com- mercial driver seats that integrate with seat belts, said most school buses and motorcoaches on the road today come standard with three-point systems for operators. Tat was echoed by IMMI’s Johnson, who added that 99 percent of driver seats on newly manufactured buses are equipped with lap/shoulder belts. “I think that most school districts and
certainly the contractors as part of their employee rules and regulations require seat belt usage,” he added. “Te school bus industry has done a great job over the last 15 to 20 years in requiring CDLs, drug and alcohol testing, driver training. And certainly the focus now on requiring driv- ers to wear their belts.” But as far as the equipment is concerned,
NHTSA aims to close any loop hole. As for motorcoach passengers, the
NPRM seeks to amend FVMSS 208 to ad- dress safety concerns uttered for years by the National Transportation Safety Board that motorcoaches do not adequately protect passengers from being thrown from their seats or ejected during a front, side, rear-impact or rollover crash. NHTSA found that one to eight lives
and between 144 and 794 injuries could be saved per year if seat belts were on all motorcoaches. But, NHTSA also said that lap/shoulder belts could result in an ad- ditional cost of $12,900 per vehicle, which equates to a total national cost of $25.8
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