In Our View: School Buses and Seat Belts

An accident involving a school bus last week in Clark County brings up a familiar question: Why don’t such buses have seat belts?

Four Amboy Middle School students were sent to the hospital after the bus in which they were riding was sideswiped by an oncoming sport utility vehicle. The result called to mind the old adage that the accident could have been much worse, and it also brought up the occasional push that arises for further protective measures on buses. Seat belts, after all, have been required on passenger cars and light trucks since 1968, and all states but New Hampshire require their use by adults. So, why not school buses? As it turns out, the reasons large school buses do not have restraint devices (seat belts are required on smaller buses) are extensive and well thought out.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Large school buses are heavier and distribute crash forces differently than do passenger cars and light trucks. … NHTSA decided that the best way to provide crash protection to passengers of large school buses is through a concept called ‘compartmentalization.’ ” In other words, according to the American School Bus Council, “The children are protected like eggs in an egg carton — compartmentalized, and surrounded with padding and structural integrity to secure the entire container.”

Clearly, the safety of schoolchildren riding in buses is a paramount concern. A decade ago, in promoting a bill that would have required seat belts on Washington buses, state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, said, “While school buses are safe, children flying around in school buses are not safe.” But data show that buses are the safest form of transportation to and from school; one study demonstrated that buses nationally account for one-fourth of school trips but only 2 percent of children’s deaths in school-related traffic accidents.

The highway safety administration also cites on its website a study from the National Academy of Sciences: “In 1989, the NAS completed a study of ways to improve school bus safety and concluded that the overall potential benefits of requiring seat belts on large school buses were insufficient to justify a federal mandate for installation. NAS also stated the funds used to purchase and maintain seat belts might be better spent on other school bus safety programs and devices that could save more lives and reduce more injuries.”

All of this might seem counterintuitve. Anybody younger than the age of about 50 has spent their entire life being told that seat belts save lives. Anybody younger than the age of about 30 spent their early years riding in a protective car seat until they outgrew it. Undoubtedly, these safety measures have saved countless lives and raised public awareness regarding car safety.

But in the case of school buses, experts argue that seat belts could actually be detrimental to student safety. Among the concerns is whether or not children would use the belts and use them in a proper manner, as well as the issue of being able to extricate themselves in the case of an emergency. And then there is the cost. According to MSNBC: “Separate studies by the NHTSA and the University of Alabama concluded that installing seat belts would add anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000 to the cost of a new bus while having little to no impact on safety.”

In the case of last week’s crash in Clark County, the gut reaction is to ensure that schools and parents are doing everything possible in order to protect students. Turns out they already are.