When you drive your son or daughter to school, you make sure they fasten their seat belt. Not only is it the smart thing to do, but it's also the law. So, when we put our kids on the school bus every morning, why aren't we taking the same precaution?
It's a good question. If seat belts save lives, you'd think that there'd be a law requiring their use on buses is just common sense. But, as with most things, there is no simple answer.
Over the years, the argument often used against seat belt use on school buses is that they can absorb crashes because they are built stronger than the average vehicle. Also, should there be a crash, it might be difficult for a bus driver to get younger children unbuckled and off the bus quickly, or so the logic went. Statistically, the numbers backed the idea that buses are safer than most forms of transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics show that about 33,000 are killed nationally every year in traffic accidents and only about six of those are students who die in school bus accidents. Far more students, 32 in fact, die annually in crashes to and from school when they're not traveling on the bus.
For the most part, we as a nation bought the argument. So while front-seat passengers have been mandated to wear seat belts in cars and trucks for nearly three decades and automakers have been required to include them as standard equipment for even longer, local governments mostly steered clear of the school bus seat belt issue. Last month, however, the NHTSA weighed in, signifying a pretty significant change in its policy. "The position of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is that seat belts save lives," NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said. "That is true whether in a passenger car or in a big yellow bus. And saving lives is what we are about. So NHTSA's policy is that every child on every school bus should have a three-point seat belt."
Currently, six states require students to wear seat belts on all school buses. Federal law requires that smaller buses that weigh under 10,000 pounds have mandatory seat belts, while the states regulate the rest. Those small buses are few and far between in Maryland. Citing these numbers, state Sen. Jim Brochin, representing Baltimore County, announced he plans to introduce a bill in the state legislature next month to require them on all school buses.
It's a good thought, but it won't be as easy. As is everything else with school improvements lately, money is at the root of the solution.
Leon Langley, director of pupil transportation for the Maryland Department of Education, told The Baltimore Sun last week that it would cost about $8,000 per bus to add new seat belts on new buses. Others across the nation have estimated that the costs could be even higher, especially in outfitting older buses. That cost here in Maryland would reach into the millions, if not the tens of millions, to do so. One approach to spread out the costs might be to just require these on all new buses with the idea that in 10 to 15 years — the typical life span of a bus — all would have seat belts.
And there will be other hurdles, too. For instance, many local jurisdictions subcontract with private bus companies, making it somewhat complicated about who foots the bill.
Langley went on to tell the Sun that even without seat belts, school buses are the safest vehicles in the nation but that they would be even safer if they were installed. He's right, making it seem like a no-brainer for the state to start down the path of seat belts on school buses. We shouldn't have to wait for an accident to happen to ask the question why they weren't installed in the first place.
Paul Milton is the editor of the Carroll County Times. Reach him at pmilton@carrollcountytimes.com.
