Special Report
Safety data and regulations have changed considerably since 1977, when NHTSA first established Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for school bus construction. At the time, the agency con- sidered requiring seat belts on large buses. But compartmentalization within
Students on a Lake Travis ISD school bus buckle up.
the money in its general operations budget. “Many other districts are looking at voluntarily getting them.” McClure said his drivers are having a positive experience with three-point seat belts. While hesitant at first, he said they have witnessed a definite improvement in behavior. “Te lap-shoulder belts have defi-
nitely been a positive experience for us,” he added. “We had one of those notorious routes that no one wanted. But we put a bus with seat belts on it, with a straight forward driver, and the behavior changed dramatically.” While not all of Fayetteville’s
buses are equipped with three-point seat belts, McClure purchased 10 buses last year with the occupant re- straints and is adding more this year. He pointed out that the district’s administration has yet to decide on an exact usage policy. Until concrete consequences are in place, bus drivers are encouraging usage, with younger students complying more
readily than older ones. In North Dakota, Minot Public Schools has two 72-passenger school buses with lap-shoulder belts purchased out of concern for rural, mountainous routes. Transportation Director Barry Brooks agreed that oc- cupant restraints improving student behavior because it forces the chil- dren to remain seated. Still, he said the district won’t purchases addi- tional school buses with the occupant restraints unless it is required to. “I’m preparing an evacuation training, and I just measured the aisle of a new bus. It’s 12-inches wide,” he said, adding that his students wear layers of clothing during winter months. “In an emergency, how quickly are kids in heavy coats going to be able to move down that aisle, especially if they have seat belts to contend with?” Te National Specifications &
Procedures passed at the 2010 NCST reduced the aisle width to
rows of high-backed seats designed to absorb impacts was considered suffi- cient, and there was a belief that seat belts could hinder exiting the bus quick- ly. That remains a fear today, as the recent Mesquite, Texas crash illustrates. The National Transportation Safety
Board has investigated several high-pro- file school bus crashes and found that compartmentalization is effective only in frontal or rear collisions. After investi- gating crashes with serious injuries or fatalities, NTSB concluded that students would benefit from being secured, especially in side-impact or rollover accidents. Crash tests have demonstrated similar findings. NTSB contends that school bus evacuation is aided by three-point belts, as students who wear them are more likely to be able to walk away from a crash. Without consistent seat belt laws
across the nation, getting students to buckle up for safety may rely on indi- vidual district efforts to educate voters, and obtain support and funding for lap-shoulder belts. Support is also nec- essary to implement policies on student usage, driver oversight, and discipline, and if the occupant restraint systems aren’t used properly, or at all.
“Te lap-shoulder belts have definitely been a positive experience for us. We had one of those notorious routes that no one wanted. But we put a bus with seat belts on it, with a straight forward driver, and the behavior changed dramatically.”
—Mike McClure, Fayetteville (Ark.) Public Schools 18 School Transportation News • NOVEMBER 2018
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