Why aren't there seatbelts on school busses?

Life is good

I drive a 2008 Thomas school bus. As the driver I have a three point seat belt and that is the only seat belt on the bus. On principle I do not agree with that arrangement. I personally believe that all occupants should be belted in. I have been wearing seat belts (without exception) since they were offered on cars.

However, on the practical side, I have to agree with the 'no seat belt' policy for the following reasons.

1 - If I am incapacitated in an accident who is going to unbelt 48 students; and some buses can carry even more students than that!

2 - what driver can stop the bus every 5 minutes and do a complete seat belt check to see if all belts are done up and, indeed, positioned properly. Remember; some buses have a 70 student capacity.

3 - If there is a fire onboard there will be insufficient time to get all the students out of their belts and off the bus.

4 - school bus seats are made of deformable materials and absorb impact very well.

5 - I wear a seat belt primarily to enable me to remain in control of the bus in emergency avoidance maneuvers plus the fact that I have no barriers to prevent me from being thrown through a picture window sized windshield. My students are surrounded by crash padding.

Although my particular bus has seat belt mounting points built in it is highly unlikely that we will see seat belts installed for a very long time. If the taxpayers want to hire two bus monitors to ride every school bus in North America full time I would welcome it. Until then the status quo will have to suffice.

NONAME

Simple, School Buses are Government owned. They exempt themselves from the same laws they force on the public.

Why do you trust the government to brainwash your kids in public schools? Look at the way the economy is fouled up, Medicare, Social Security, the Postal Service, and most any government office you deal with.

For the seat belt issue on buses, maybe one of the brainwashed government workers can give us a BS answer on this. You know it won't be an educated guess.

Mike K

you know how long it would take a driver to go and look at each kid to make sure he/she is wearing their seatbelt. if he did do that how would he know that they were kept on and not taking off

Pinky

School buses are made with seats that are high backed and thick cushioned. Secondly that most school buses when in an accident is usually front or rear end collisions and therefore the seats work well. Thirdly most school districts do not have the money to hire the aids to put on the buses to make sure the students are seat belted in. Your drivers are trained well and most accidents are very minor. The only thing a seat belt would take care of was roll overs and that doesn't happen to often.Not only that the students on board the bus would use them for a weapon. And lastly in the event of a fire you have to cut the students out of seat belts and that takes a long time figure 72 passengers to cut out of a seat belt?

bungee

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