Getting to the Heart (and Head) of the Lap-Shoulder Belt Issue


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ASDPTS opened its full conference on Sunday with a headliner session focused on the polarizing issue of lap-shoulder seat belts on school


buses, which the state directors association has championed for the past several years following NTSB crash investigations and crash-test data that shows the occupant restraints complete compartmentalization. A controversial position paper published in 2014 highlights NASDPTS’ full support of the installation and use of lap-shoulder seat belts if it is the result of a local school district decision to do so. NASDPTS also supported NHTSA’s po- sition that school districts should only decide to implement the seat belts if they do not displace students from the school bus. Te association added that any new state law,


such as was the case earlier this year in Texas and Nevada, should contain requirements for man- datory student usage along with training on the correct wearing of the restraints and evacuation. It also encourages the occupant restraints as an option when student transporters purchase new school buses, as long as funding is available. “Can you believe this is the headliner session


for the NASDPTS Conference? Tis would never have happened 20 years ago,” NASDPTS President Diana Hollander told STN as she prepared for Columbus. “With the rapid shift in attitudes and a recent crash test I witnessed, the time was right to have the conversation.” Tat crash test occurred on Aug. 22 at IM-


MI’s Center for Advanced Product Evaluation in Westfield, Indiana, as the parent company of SafeGuard sought to replicate the crash forces of a 2012 fatal incident occurring in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Te NASDPTS opening session featured


video footage taken by IMMI during the crash test as well as a roundtable discussion between Hollander, Charlie Gauthier, who retired from NASDPTS as executive director in 2006 and before that was director of NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations, NTSB Deputy Director Dr. Kristin Poland, Charlie Vits of SafeGuard/ IMMI, and NASDPTS President-Elect Mi- chael LaRocco from the Indiana Department of Education. Te Port St. Lucie crash was the first stud-


ied by NTSB that had video capture the entire crash sequence and about 15 minutes of footage afterward. Poland discussed how maintaining consciousness during a crash results in increased chances of survivability, especially in the case of a water submersion or fire. Poland said 19 students in the Port St. Lucie crash self-evacuated in 60 seconds or less. Six students suffered loss of consciousness tied to head injuries, and none of these students were able to self-evacuate.


12 THE SHOW REPORTER • NOV 4-7, 2017 NASDPTS then showed video of the IMMI


crash test, which was more in depth than what ABC’s “Good Morning America” showed last week. LaRocco said that what shocked him the most about the crash was how one of the unbuckled crash-test dummies dented the top of the school bus window frame with its head before being ejected. In Indiana, LaRocco said it would cost $20


per each of the 1 million student riders to pay for lap-shoulder seat belts, so school districts and states need to get creative in seeking the neces- sary funding. Still, Hollander added, that cost remains the biggest concern in addition to instal- lation, and usage but these have been addressed by the growing number of school districts that are adopting the occupant restraints. “School buses with belts will increase rid-


ership,” she added on parents who want their children in lap-shoulder belts. Gauthier said he does not en- dorse a federal or state mandate but instead said the school bus industry needs to ensure parents, who are the industry’s ultimate customers, remain on its side. He advised student transporters to speak in specifics rather than generalizations on school bus safety and to use a data and science perspective rather than an emotional one, especially with the media. Gauthier added that data and science show that lap-shoulder seat belts are the safest piece of equipment for all motor carrier passengers. Parents don’t readily accept


that compartmentalization is enough, he added, and they believe lap-shoulder belts are necessary in school buses. So, it confuses parents and even makes them mad when they hear the school bus industry talk about its safety record yet resist lap-shoulder belts. And they won’t accept the argument that they cost too much. “It appears in their minds we are being hypo-


critical,” he explained. “If we are all about safety, why aren’t we for this one?” Instead, he recommended the school bus


industry to say that it supports lap-shoulder belts as long as they are fully funded, which can place the pressure on local state legislators. He also said lap-shoulder belt buckles can’t be used as weapons and pointed out that the same buckle release pressure required for passenger vehicle lap-shoulder belts also applies to school buses, two other frequent arguments made by those who oppose lap-shoulder belts. STN asked LaRocco, the chair of this week’s


NASDPTS conference, if setting up the session was a “labor of love” for the association. “I think it was a labor of need,” he respond-


ed, adding that current NASDPTS Executive Director Charlie Hood “should get most of the credit” in assembling the panel. “Every time I read some article about a school bus crash, I always consider whether lap-shoulder belts could have helped reduce the fatalities—rare—or injuries—more likely. And this headliner session delved into an area that most don’t consider: Injuries even when compartmentalization was ‘successful.’” While Hollander said she remains uncon- vinced lap-shoulder belts alone and their report- ed effectiveness in improving onboard student behavior will curb a nationwide driver shortage, LaRocco said he sees the occupant restraints as a valuable tool to that end.


Dr. Kristin Poland of NTSB presents to NASDPTS attendees on Sunday regarding concussion data retrieved from school bus passengers in crashes.


“If a district can show a driver a video, like the


one from Bartholomew Consolidated Schools, that shows kids staying in their seats with no behavior issues due to lap-shoulder belts, it can only help acquire and keep drivers,” he added, re- ferring to the presentation at the NHTSA school bus seat belt summit last year that demonstrated the difference in behavior on the same route with the same students when they were belted versus when they were not belted. ●


Read a Q&A with NASDPTS President Diana Hollander as she prepared for the conference: stnonline.com/news/web-exclusives.

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