Why don't school buses have seat belts?

Pat S

There are several reasons in addition to buses being safer vehicles. First, seat belt use could not be enforced unless the driver got up and checked every seat every time the bus stopped. Even if that happened, there's nothing to stop someone from unbuckling the belt once the driver sat down.

They could also be used as weapons. They could be vandalized, and a faulty seat belt could end up being more hazardous than no belt at all.

Most importantly, in an emergency, the bus would have to be evacuated in a hurry. Many small children may not be able to unbuckle themselves in time. Forcing one driver to unbuckle a bus full of kids during an emergency could be a disaster.

nighthawker03

oklatom answered correctly. The rest of the answers are only incorrect guesses. The study from 1987 found that for most collisions that passenger injuries would increase with seat belts.

With newer technology, lap / shoulder are being considered for school buses. California has now passed a law that requires all new school buses in the state use lap / shoulder belts. Technology now exists to allow 3-point belts to be adjusted properly for passengers of different heights.

It is still more expensive and reduces the number of passengers on the bus but many parent groups are lobbying for seat belt laws.

BTW: school buses can weigh up to about 25000 lbs.

oklatom

The chief justification is a 1987 study by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which looked at 43 serious crashes involving school buses without seat belts. Researchers concluded that seat belts would have been no help in most of these accidents. The study reasoned that closely-spaced bus seats essentially function as seat belts, in that they prevent passengers from being thrown around. A 1989 National Academy of Sciences study came to a similar conclusion.

Seat belts were designed for use in cars. Buses are built from the ground up with safety in mind.

Pancakes

Sometime in the near future, a California parent will sue a school district for $48 million, and win.
Then there will be seat belts in all buses.

sheryle d

a school bus weighs around 40000+lbs, there is not a bunch of objects that you can hit that will cause anyone to fly around. with a seat belt or not at about 20mph head on with another bus at 20mph everyone is dead anyway. at least with no lap belt only you will not have to find out what legs belong with what torso.
Face it a Bus does not have crumple zones. If you hit a concrete wall at 40 MPH seat belt or not...... You will have to hose the blood of the seats before you send the same bus out on the next kid's run

My Policies Caused The Calapse

Why do people park in driveways???

way2damnhot4u

i think that they figure that because there are so many seats that they dont need seatbelts. Other than that its really stupid that they dont have any seatbelts. I ride a schoolbus to my high school, and everytime we go around a turn, you can see everybody stuggling to even stay in their seats... i can only imagine what would happen if we were to accidentally overturn the bus!

Magley64...AM

it is about the fire hazard, and it's unlikely that a bus is going to get damaged by hitting anything, they are heavier than most things on the road...

noodle_stupot

I dont know i often think the same thing it seems since there is so many childrens lifes at stake that they would have them

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