Auto safety chief backs seat belts on school buses

The head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made that call at a transportation conference on Sunday in Virginia.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind told the National Association for Pupil Transportation, “Seat belts save lives, and that includes seat belts on school buses”.

“Seat belts save lives, and it should be on every school bus for every kid”, said Rosekind.

Requiring every school bus to have seat belts isn’t cheap.

“Local officials are in the best position to decide whether to purchase seat belts, since these officials must weigh a multitude of unique considerations bearing on purchasing decisions, especially when faced with budgetary constraints”, the statement said.

Until now, the long standing policy has been that seat belts aren’t necessary on buses because of the way they are designed.

John Tuttle, a former Democratic representative from Sanford, filed legislation to require all new school buses purchased by Maine schools to have seat belts. Among the topics I will ask them to address is how their state and its school districts have overcome the cost hurdles that are so often cited as the reason we can’t provide seat belts to all students. “As more information is available from the NHTSA, along with data from the American School Bus Council and others who study the safety needs of schools buses, we will certainly continue to promote the safe use of school buses”.

A few school bus drivers and monitors disagreed.

“Seat belts are icons of safety”.

“Why not? Why not simply sell buses with seat belts?”

“They can’t snap their fingers and make their requirement, but again the interest is there at the federal government at the highest level”, says the DPI’s Derek Graham. However, they said they now believe otherwise.

“We do evacuation training, we do student management training, we do a number of different things for that”, Martin said.