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or all the reasons lap-shoulder seat belts make sense in school buses, there are as many arguments against them. Regardless of crash test results and on-board video
evidence that the three-point occupant restraints complete compartmentalization, especially in side-impact and rollover crashes, many student transporters remain convinced, scared even, that lap-shoulder belts might result in increased risks for students and drivers, alike. But school bus drivers with actual experience
driving these seat-belt equipped school buses are providing the most evidence on added benefits. Reduced student behavior problems are a direct by-product of keeping students in their seats. Tat was the feedback provided by several Indi- ana student transporters who attended an IMMI crash test of a semi-truck hitting a school bus in August. And more school bus drivers nationwide are sharing similar experiences. “(Lap-shoulder belts) keep them more in their seat. Te little ones aren’t all over the place,” said Danny Johnson, a bus driver for Des Moines, Iowa, Public Schools who partici- pated in the district’s pilot last school year and who continues to drive the same bus this fall. Proving teenagers continue to be teenagers, John- son added that the high school students took longer to get used to the seat belts. But overall he said his
bus is now much quieter, which he added helps him concentrate on the road. When asked if he’d ever return to a non-lap-shoulder
route, he responded, “No. I kinda like the belts better.” Karen Wetherald, the transportation manager for
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation in Columbus, Indiana, inherited the occupant restraints from now-retired director Monica Coburn, who purchased lap-shoulder belt school buses in 2008. Nearly half of the district’s 142 have the seat belts, 57 regular education routes and 11 special needs buses, the latter required by federal law. Tough Bartholomew Consolidated is well on its way to a fleet entirely equipped with the lap-shoulder belts, the early days of adoption saw their share of driver pushback. She recalled one especially vocal school bus driver who resisted driving one of the seat belt buses until, finally, Wetherald told her she had to give one a try. After a few runs, the driver proclaimed, “I eat crow.” Another Bartholomew driver, Larry Mauzy, became so enamored with lap-shoulder belts and how they reduced behavior problems that, though reticently, he bid off his former route this school year after learning that he would driving a different bus without the occupant restraints. “To give up on that and hear, ‘We’ve decided not to have seat belts on buses on your route,’ I didn’t
Des Moines school bus driver Danny Johnson is among a growing number of school bus drivers nationwide who don’t want to give up their lap-shoulder seat belts.
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