Northern Virginia school board to require seat beats for all new buses
The Loudon School Board has voted unanimously to require seat belts on all new buses. Board members said they want to reinforce the buckle-up habit that children learn in family vehicles and set a higher safety standard in a county with intensifying congestion and many unpaved roads. “We have a lot of buses moving around narrow roads at high speeds, and kids aren't strapped in,” said board member Joseph M. Guzman, who sponsored the measure. Studies have shown that large buses with high, padded seats are safer than the average family car, even without seat belts. Adding seat belts to buses poses cost and design questions, experts said. For those reasons, most large, standard-size school buses don’t have them. In November, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters proposed safety standards that would require small school buses, those weighing less than 10,000 pounds, to be equipped with lap-and-shoulder belts. Current rules for those buses call for lap belts only. Peters also said school systems would be able to use federal highway safety funds to install seat belts on any bus. Experts said the proposed federal regulations are adding momentum to a seat belt drive that has grown in recent years. Michael Lunsford, Loudoun school transportation director, said he gets calls every year from parents about the lack of seat belts. He expects it will take 13 years or longer to replace the entire 750-bus fleet with new vehicles with seat belts. According to Lunsford, installing seats with three-point belts will add about $10,000 to the typical $90,000 price of a bus.
Source: Washington Post, 1/10/08, By Michael Alison Chandler
[Editor’s Note: The proposed federal regulations are summarized below.]
NSBA School Law pages on proposed federal regulations