Accident Issues and Seat Belt Laws for School Buses

Seat belts and other safety equipment in vehicles have been proven to safe lives of the occupants in a vehicle during accidents. Aside from these, laws regarding child restraint and correct seating areas for children of certain ages were also set out, since children are likely to suffer more severe injuries in a car accident compared to adults.

The aforementioned regulations apply to ordinary vehicles, even if children are not always present on them. However, for mass transit vehicles that carry children all the time like school buses, not all states have laws that are subject to strict compliance.

In fact, seat belts for school buses have been a long-running issue, since there are influential groups that back the supporters and detractors of school bus seat belt laws.

Advocates

The National Parent-Teacher Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are in favor of installing all large school buses with seat belts. These groups say that when children learn to use seat belts at an early age, they will learn to practice doing it until they become older. The AAP argued that children behave better and are less of a distraction to the driver if they are buckled. The National Coalition for Seatbelts on School Buses, meanwhile, listed more reasons as to why all large school buses should have seatbelts.

• In the event of a crash, seat belts will reduce the risk of death or severe injuries to children who are correctly seated.

• It also protects better during rollovers or side impact crashes.

• The cost to install is minimal.

Opponents

The main detractors of school bus seat belt laws are the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT). According to former NAPT President Donald Carnahan, "Seat belts in cars and lap belts on school buses are completely different safety issues." Some of the reasons pointed out by the opponents are the following:

• The cost is not minimal – it will be around $7,000 to $11,000 per bus.

• Some bus drivers see the responsibility of making sure all kids are buckled up too much.

• More children get killed when around a school bus, not when they are inside.

• There are no data that will support the reduction of school bus seat belts accident.

• There is no guarantee that the children will indeed use the installed seat belts. In fact, improper use or the possible usage of seat belts as weapons may even result to injuries.

To learn more about school bus accident cases, consult with our skilled Los Angeles personal injury attorneys. Log on to our website and avail of our free case evaluation.