PROPER PLACEMENT WRITTEN BY SEAN GALLAGHER |
SEAN@STNONLINE.COM T
he routine is pretty much standard. Students wait for the school bus in the morning, hop aboard and get a ride to school. At the end of the day, the process is repeated in the opposite direction, the students leaving
campus on a school bus to be dropped off at individual stops. Home is only an intermission in an operation that continues day in and day out day over the span of a student’s school career. For students confined to wheelchairs, however, the sequence is almost the same—just with a few extra steps thrown in. Tese additional procedures are done for safety, obviously. No matter the situation, districts and school bus drivers want their passengers to arrive at their destinations safe and sound. Tis means, at times, precise processes that must be followed to
stand by this objective. Tis means committing to training to stay current on the latest safety standards to transport students in wheel- chairs. Tis means having specific, up-to-date knowledge of wheel- chair-anchored lap belts and the most recent tie-down techniques. Several of these techniques are established by the Rehabilitation
Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, an association of people with an interest in technology and disability. One procedure that school bus drivers should be well-practiced
in is WC-18, a RESNA standard that covers wheelchair tie downs and occupant restraint systems (WTORS) that secure wheelchair and provide crash protection for riders in wheelchairs.
46School Transportation News • MARCH 2017
Q’Straint hosts a free training seminar in October to provide classroom and hands-on instruction on proper wheelchair securement, including for school buses. Registration for the 2017 National Training Seminar opens April 1.
WC-18 is an improved version of the old standards put forth
by SAE J2249, ‘Wheelchair Tiedown and Occupant Restraint Systems for Use in Motor Vehicles.’ Transportation providers are encouraged use of products that comply with WC-18—which was last revised in 2012—instead of J2249. “Various departments of education and individual districts
throughout the country have adopted WC-18 as they revise their bus specifications for new procurements,” said Darren Reaume, a national training manager for Q’Straint, a developer of wheelchair passenger safety solutions for public and private transportation. He said the Florida-based, international company makes belts for the wheelchair manufacturers to be used on the crash-tested models. Reaume pointed to the University of Michigan Transportation
Research Institute as resource for discovering which wheelchair makes and models of are available with a wheelchair-anchored lap belts. “About 80 percent of the wheelchairs we crash test UMTRI
have the crashworthy wheelchair-anchored lap belt,” said Miriam Manary, a senior research associate in the Biosciences Group, joined UMTRI in 1988. She added that “in the many wheelchair crash/injury events we
have investigated, nearly all wheelchairs were secured to the vehicle, but many occupants in the wheelchairs did not have a crashworthy seatbelt or had one that was not fitted well to their body.” According to the UMTRI website, WC18 encourages and
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