I just seen a horrible video tape of one our loacl school buses being wrecked. It showed the kids being jolted up and down harshly and then it flipped on its' side. The film showed all the kids being literally slammed into one pile on the side and the roof of the bus! This has got to stop, why can't they reconstruct school buses to have safety belts just like a car? The safety of our children is too important for them to ignore this? Anyone agree?

soaringhorse - Most schoolbuses do have safety belts, but in many states the students are not required to wear them. The reason? It's not a cut and dry issue. Studies have actually shown that seatbelts in schoolbuses are more likely to cause damage than prevent it. This is beacause, despite the rare accident that always makes big news, schoolbuses are extremely safe. The National Health and Safety Administration decided against national regulations based on studies by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Transportation Safety Board.

[This message was edited by methos5000 on 10-18-03 at 09:53 AM.]

Direct answer to your question...are yellow school busses safe? Well yes, I think they are safe as can be expected. These busses are safety inspected, and any vehicle can be involved in an accident. Regardless of how safe they are, injuries or death can still occur.
I don't see where safety belts would make busses any safer. The only busses here that are equipped with seat belts are special education busses. This issue was recently brought up here, and some of the bus drivers thought safety belts would be more of a hindrance than being safe, in an accident..

I'll have to disagree one this one. Here where I live none of the school buses have seat belts and if you ask me that's stupid, hello we all know that seat belts save lives right? Then why on earth would we not put them on school buses? Dose it mean if my child was in a seat belt an accident would not happen of coarse not but it means if it does happen that seat belt will keep my child from flying out of his/her seat and possible save them from serious injury if they were to lets say hit their head on the roof, floor or window of that bus. I've been on our school buses many a times for field trips and what not, and I can tell you even the smallest bumps in the road have sent many children onto the floor. Seat belts make buses safer the same way they make cars safer. And as for the hindrance, same can be said for people in a car accident yet the law says you must were one in your car so why not the same for school buses?

Cars are not designed the same way as buses. The force from an impact in a crash involving a bus is distributed differently (more safely) than with a car. The organizations I mentioned above and the Canadian government (I forget the name of the specific organization within it) have all come to this conclusion. Seatbelts cause injuries in cars too, it is just that they are more likely to prevent injuries than cause them in cars.

I hear and respect what your saying methos but I still disagree. You can show me study after study but as far as I'm concern it's really just their opinion, unless these people who did this study where actually on a bus while it crashed some wearing seat belts some not then maybe I'd listen better to what they have to say. Like I said in my past post I don't need a study to tell me that if nothing else a seat belt will keep children from bouncing out of their seats onto the floor when they hit a small bump in the road. And studies change all the time depending on which side the person who is paying for the studying is on, hell give me thousands of dollars and I'll do my own study and prove that wearing safety belts on buses help to save lives. I have never been a big believer of what other people tell me is safe I'm more a hands on person myself. So in answering the question I'd have to say no I don't think school buses are safe, and that's why I choose to drive my children to school

School buses are not safe. A very large moving hunk of steel and fiberglass is definitely not safe. Neither are cars, vans, SUVs, etc...

Your kids are probably statistically safer in the school bus than in your car for a lot of reasons, but it's fine if you want to drive them instead.

Personally I had fun times on the bus as a kid... but then again, I also rode my bike without a helmet, was put in the back window as a baby (no carseat) and I got sunburns too... and somehow I survived.

Oh and I really think buses should have seat belts and they should be clamped down when the kids get out of line... most accidents are because bus drivers are in hell dealing with kids moving all over the place (just kidding, I think real seat belts are a good idea)

I'm with you Beth...

I have always been concerned about the fact that school buses don't have seat belts.

Although buses get in accidents less often than cars, does that make it any less important that the charges there are protected?

I sincerely feel that school buses should have seatbelts. So in the unlikely (but occasional) event that a bus is in an accident, our kids have a chance, rather than be thrown around the bus, breaking bones or worse.

I would like to think that my own daughter, who now rides a bus for the first time in her life at 15, would have a chance if that bus happened to be in an accident - by being held in her seat by a seat belt.

It would really depend on the nature of the accident. In some cases, seat belts might be safer, but in some cases, it wouldn't be safer. Since I wouldn't know which case would happen, I'd rather there be no seat belt.

My sons are totally unable to maintain a position in any moving vehicle without seatbelts. In fact, my oldest had to have chest/hip harness clipped on him to keep him safe and in position. I know not all kids have the same issues as my boys, but very young kids with weak bodies and poor balance have a very high risk of injury.. head injuries from being propelled into the seat in front of them, etc.

I think it helps when there is a safe bus driver driving. The bus drivers here are hard to keep because the kids are so bad. That makes lots of new trainees every year. So no I don't think they are safe here anyway.

"Every year, approximately 394,000 public school buses travel approximately 4.3 billion miles to transport 23.5 million children to and from school and school-related activities. Since 1984, on the average, 11 passengers per year have died in school bus crashes.... For example, in 1995, twelve occupants in a school-bus-body type vehicle died in a crash. During the same year, 8,168 children between the ages of 5 and 20 died as passengers or drivers in all other types of motor vehicles."
~National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Not a complete comparison (we don't know how many miles were traveled by children in other types of vehicles), but they do seem pretty safe.

Just a little more info on that video I saw on the news. The video showed the kids being jolted very harshly, then it showed the whole bus flipping, kids flailing to the roof and landing on top of each other. Now I know this is just one incident, as compared to vehicles, but in the long run, if this accident does occur they would have been safer belted in.

On another level, I have a child that has complained of the school buses being so cramped they have to stand on them while travelling to school. Yes, this is a public school bus but that does not mean it's right. I have called and complained each year, with no avail. They just are not looking at this issue seriously enough. These children should be able to get to school safely without worrying about being thrown forward, upwards or in any direction. Yes, it makes it nice if you can drive your child to school, if your work schedule allows this.For those who do not have that convenience then is it wrong to "assume" that our children are safely being transported back and forth to school?
We can debate whether seat belts save lives or not but in this instance, I do believe the children would not have been injured if they weren't slammed up on the ceiling and crushing each other.