Everyone is very concerned about seatbelts in cars, especially for children. So why are there no seatbelts on school buses, where you would think safety would be of greatest concern?
One quick guess: There’s no chance in hell you’d ever get the little brats to keep them on!
Hard. Heavy. Ideal for bashing the class outcast on the head. Need I say more?
I asked a school bus driver this question, and she said that the number of children who would be injured by getting hit in the head with the buckle would be much higher than the number who are typically injured in crashes. She pointed out that it would be virtually impossible for the driver to keep belts on 50 children and prevent them from using the belts as weapons while simultaneously watching where she was driving.
It seems that a bus, by it’s mass, wouldn’t be catastrophically affected by most crashes (assuming it’s vehicle-vehicle, not bus-wall) as cars are, and there wouldn’t be as big a need for seat belts.
Bus, moving at speeds typically 35 MPH or under, impacts something in front of it. Kid slams into big cushy seat in front of him/her. Kid stops moving forward.
Typically, kid is fine.
Poll: I grew up in North Carolina. In that state, it was mandatory that all school buses be equipped with governors capable of keeping them under 35 MPH. Any other states have similar laws?
I did some research on this a while ago, I think the number of children killed in accidents while they were passengers on school buses was single-digit in the US during the year prior to that research. I think the number was between 2 and 8 for all the years I found numbers on.
I don’t know the total # of bus-riding children, or the total number of miles driven, but my gut instinct is to say that is a phenomenally safe driving record and/or fatality rate.
As my above argument and SenorBeef’s above argument tended to argue, there isn’t a need for seat belts in school buses. I suspect you couldn’t justify it economically.
When I went to a private school for a couple years, the public school bus I rode definitely had seatbelts. Fortunately it was a small bus and the driver had no problem keeping the kids buckled in.
Jonathan Woodall…35 mph?? Obviously you haven’t seen some of the drivers in my county.