Special Report
Students at Lake Travis ISD in Texas show what they think of the district’s three-point seat belts. School bus drivers there also give their thumbs up for the reduction in on- board behavior issues.
Is Improved Student Behavior Just a Click Away?
WRITTEN BY DEBBIE CURTIS W
hile some transportation professionals do have reservations about mandatory lap-shoulder
seat belts, more local school districts are enacting policies that require them. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 222 already requires newly-made school buses weighing less than 10,000 pounds to include either two-point lap or three-point lap and shoulder belts. Requirements for larger buses are left up to state and local legislation. Some states, such as Texas, allow for individual districts to opt out of the requirement—if the school board can convince the community that it can’t afford the occupant restraints, and there are no other options to fund them. Lake Travis ISD near Austin, Texas, has a full fleet of three-point equipped buses— thanks to a $253 million bond passed last fall, $10 million of which was allocated
toward purchasing 51 new buses with lap-shoulder belts and retrofitting another 50 existing buses. Te district is seeing improved student behavior as a result. “Our drivers say they have fewer discipline problems with the elementary students, because they are buckled into their seats,” said Director of Transportation Rhonda Davis. “With secondary students, drivers are walking the bus before leaving school and strongly recommending that students buckle up. Most don’t, or they take them off as soon as the bus pulls out. We are working on our disciplinary plan, but as our elementary students move through the grades, eventually we’ll have all students accustomed to using seat belts.”
WEIGHING COSTS VS. BENEFITS In a recent STN survey, readers said the
average price to add the seat belts on a new bus purchase is about $7,000. While
16 School Transportation News • NOVEMBER 2018
some districts balk at the added expense, three-point elts remain a small percentage of the total cost of a new bus, especially when compared to the cost of other tech- nology, which includes engine, emissions and fuel systems. But the cost of not adding lap-shoulder belts could actually be much higher. An industry consultant who provides expert testimony on school bus safety issues told STN that school districts, as well as bus manufacturers, could be required to pay escalating damages litigating liability cases in court, as a result of not providing lap-shoulder seat belts. Indeed, public awareness of the “Great
Seat Belt Debate” is only increasing, as seen by fatal school bus crashes such as the one in New Jersey on May 17. By August, Gov. Phil Murphy made New Jersey the fourth state in the nation to require three-point seat belts on new school buses, beginning in early 2019.
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