Any seatbelt gurus around?

[underwaterrhymes]

EmilieMadison is a car seat guru. She might have knowledge in this area too.

[EmilieMadison]

Standard school buses? No. They dont need seat belts. In fact, statistically, kids are safer on a school bus than any other ground transportation available. About 800 kids per year die on their way to and from school while walking, biking or being driven in a car with seat belts. About 6 kids per year die while in school bus crashes.

Because buses are large and brightly colored, they're less likely to be involved in a crash to start with. But if they are, the passengers are up higher and the weight of the bus usually means less risk of injury to the passengers.

Buses (full sized school buses, not coaches or public transit) utilize compartmentalization instead of seat belts. The seats are close together and covered with 4"-5" inch foam, which absorbs most of the crash forces. The tall seats also prevent kids from being ejected.

Groups (usually of parents) try to rally to get seat belts on buses every few years across the country, but these well meaning parents simply dont understand why it's a bad idea. Not only would it be hugely cost prohibitive (it would require most districts adding 20% more buses to their fleets on TOP of retrofitting belts because each seat would hold fewer kids), but seat belts can actually be dangerous.

First, the ONLY safe type of seat belt is a lap and shoulder belt. Lap-only belts can cause severe injury. A large percentage of students using school buses are elementary students- almost all of whom still require the use of a booster seat to get a proper seat belt fit. And, young children are simply not responsible enough to use their seat belts correctly all of the time. Who would monitor them? Who would make sure every kid is properly buckled?

So TL;DR answer? Costs too much, unnecessary, and even potentially dangerous.

Sorry for such a tangent, but it's an interesting topic and a hard one for lots of people (including me, at first!) to accept when we are so pro-seat belt!

[EmilieMadison]

Dec 27, 2013 21:36:06 GMT -5 jamie.1022 said:

Emilie, how do you know all this stuff?!

Genius brain, obvs!

Real answer: I'm a certified passenger safety technician and have to take training courses 

[karmasabiotch]

Interesting. Thanks Emille. That totally make sense.

[EmilieMadison]

Dec 28, 2013 10:20:47 GMT -5 @evelynrichards said:

Dec 27, 2013 21:30:04 GMT -5 EmilieMadison said:

Standard school buses? No. They dont need seat belts. In fact, statistically, kids are safer on a school bus than any other ground transportation available. About 800 kids per year die on their way to and from school while walking, biking or being driven in a car with seat belts. About 6 kids per year die while in school bus crashes.

Because buses are large and brightly colored, they're less likely to be involved in a crash to start with. But if they are, the passengers are up higher and the weight of the bus usually means less risk of injury to the passengers.

Buses (full sized school buses, not coaches or public transit) utilize compartmentalization instead of seat belts. The seats are close together and covered with 4"-5" inch foam, which absorbs most of the crash forces. The tall seats also prevent kids from being ejected.

Groups (usually of parents) try to rally to get seat belts on buses every few years across the country, but these well meaning parents simply dont understand why it's a bad idea. Not only would it be hugely cost prohibitive (it would require most districts adding 20% more buses to their fleets on TOP of retrofitting belts because each seat would hold fewer kids), but seat belts can actually be dangerous.

First, the ONLY safe type of seat belt is a lap and shoulder belt. Lap-only belts can cause severe injury. A large percentage of students using school buses are elementary students- almost all of whom still require the use of a booster seat to get a proper seat belt fit. And, young children are simply not responsible enough to use their seat belts correctly all of the time. Who would monitor them? Who would make sure every kid is properly buckled?

So TL;DR answer? Costs too much, unnecessary, and even potentially dangerous.

Sorry for such a tangent, but it's an interesting topic and a hard one for lots of people (including me, at first!) to accept when we are so pro-seat belt!

Thank you! This is all very helpful. The parents are working with a group who claims most of these reasons are myths; however, the group sells seatbelt install services, so ...

LOL! One of my favorite quotes is "The good thing about science it's true whether or not you believe in it."  And they can call them myths all they want, but facts dont lie.

And honestly, even if they get everyone to agree with them, then they'll have to figure out how to pay for it- the seat belts, installation, and MORE BUSES, since with seat belts, each seat will hold only two elementary students instead of three. I have a feeling that even the parents who think this is a fantastic idea are not prepared to pay for it.