NHTSA Pushes Lawmakers and School Districts to Enhance Safety for Children on School Buses
According to recent remarks made by NHTSA Administrator Dr. Mark Rosekind for the National Association for Pupil Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will shift its position to endorse 3-point lap/shoulder seatbelts on school buses.
As NHTSA’s administrator, my primary role is as the leader of our agency. NHTSA has not always spoken with a clear voice on the issue of seat belts on school buses. So let me clear up any ambiguity now: The position of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is that seat belts save lives. 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. NHTSA will seek to use all the tools at our disposal to help achieve that goal, and today I want to launch a nationwide effort to get us there.
Is this a change in position? Yes. But it is consistent with NHTSA’s role as the guardian of safety on America’s roads. It is consistent with decades of progress in raising seat belts in the minds of the public from novelty to nuisance to “the car doesn’t move until I hear that click.” Seat belts are icons of safety. And that makes them the single most effective thing we can provide to improve the confidence of parents, policymakers and children. Without seat belts on buses, there is a gaping, obvious hole in our safety measures that sparks questions all of us have to answer. With seat belts, we can build momentum for student pedestrian safety, enhanced enforcement, and more.
Photo Credit: Safeguard4kids
While school buses are among the safest methods of transportation due to size, mass, visibility, driver experience and other factors, seatbelts would make them even safer. Seatbelts would also make large buses compatible with child safety seats for younger kids. Smaller school buses are already being transitioned to lap and shoulder belt systems. Concerns include cost and passenger capacity, which could reduce the number of children served by buses, possibly forcing some to other means of transportation. Currently, states determine if large school buses require seatbelts. Six states currently require either lap or lap/shoulder belts, but some of these mandates remain unfunded.
According to NHTSA, approximately 4 school age children (5-18 years old) who are occupants of large school buses are killed annually. Assuming 100% seat belt use, a Federal mandate for lap/shoulder belts could save 2 lives annually. Passenger car fatality rates are over 7 times higher overall.
It is still worth noting that most published comparisons between cars and buses use overall car fatality rates where fatal injuries are dominated by unrestrained occupants and crashes where the car driver is a teen or is under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. Overall rates also don’t take into account that many car fatalities happen with greater frequency during overnight hours, evening rush hours and during summer months when school buses may not be operating. So, the rates for a grade school child transported by a parent or adult caregiver in an appropriate restraint system in the back seat of a family vehicle would presumably be closer to the rates observed in school buses.
Even so, CarseatBlog applauds NHTSA’s new goal that could cut school bus fatalities nearly in half, and significantly reduce many more preventable injuries, making large school buses safer than any alternative. The consistency of message for a child to buckle-up anytime they are in a vehicle is also extremely important. The American Academy of Pediatrics also endorses such a policy.
The AAP recommends that all children travel in age-appropriate, properly secured child-restraint systems when transported in all motor vehicles, including school buses, to ensure the safest ride possible. The AAP further recommends that all newly manufactured school buses be equipped with lap/shoulder restraint systems that can also accommodate car safety seats, booster seats, and harness systems. The AAP recognizes the added benefit of improved student behavior and consistent habits of restraint use when traveling in motor vehicles. Policies on seat belt use have been found to improve student behavior and reduce driver distraction.
Its about time! I am a school bus driver and for their safety and ours the kids need to be in a seatbelt. I experimented with it one year. I explained to the kids that seatbelt are for their safety. Just as I use mine all the time they should use theirs! They were very compliant and the noise level dropped at least 20 decibels and they stayed put! I am all for the 3point harness it must be completely adjustable for all the sizes of these little ones! Bring it on!
Safety is paramount of course, but on the logistical side of this, are bus seatbelts designed any differently than cars? Would elementary kids need boosters on the bus? That sounds like a nightmare to organize/ coordinate/ enforce.
Well, it’s about d@mn time.
This makes me so happy. If only because it will encourage kids to sit in position so that compartmentalization can do its job! I am a teacher and I sometimes have to ride the bus with students. Not only do I find it appalling how many kids are out of position even when there are adults around to police them, but it also puts *me* in danger because I have to get up, turn around, etc in order to manage their behavior and get them sitting back down in position. Much of the time, the only adult on a school bus is the driver and so kids spend even more time out of position.
Also compartmentalization only works when the bus doesn’t roll
Very interesting news!
I’m surprised to read that “only” four school-age bus passengers die each year, and am obviously glad that increased seat belt usage will reduce that. But I wonder – do we have any information on serious injuries? How many school-age bus passengers are injured each year, and how might the increased use of seat belts affect that?
(I’m always curious about injuries. It seems that most “harm” from crashes is measured in fatalities. But as a CPST, I’m interested not just in reducing fatalities but reducing all types of injuries, too.)
Right, we need to know the “morbidity and mortality” of crashes, not just the mortality.
OK, there are 7200 injuries every year and 4 deaths. But I didn’t see a specification on how serious those injuries are. There’s a big difference between a cut that requires stitches and an injury that results in paralysis.
I would guess that some years there are zero fatalities, and others have more due to one or two crashes. So it’s possible those are averages over a decade or more. The NHTSA powerpoint presentation linked did not reference studies with underlying data, unfortunately.
The injuries always far outweigh the fatals so it’s important that we don’t focus only on the number of lives that could have been saved by seatbelts on school buses. Years ago, before my kids were in school there was a horrific school bus crash just 3 blocks from my house. The bus skidded on a muddy road and went into a 5-foot ditch. “Only” one child died (I put “only” in quotation because obviously even one child is too many) but 36 out of 38 elementary school kids on that bus were injured. Many of them severely. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1982&dat=19900205&id=qFZGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oiMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1123,762730&hl=en