Buffalo Public Schools is one of the latest school districts to opt for lap/shoulder seat belts in its school buses.

When school starts on Sept. 8, students will see 20 percent of Buffalo's school bus fleet equipped with Safeguard Flex Seats that include the occupant restraint systems manufactured by IMMI. The district also recently upgraded it's entire fleet with Safeguard Integrated Child Seats.

“I have witnessed firsthand how compartmentalization works, but during the course of my investigations, I saw way too many accidents where the kids were jostled around the compartment and I wish they had been restrained,” said John Fahey, a former assistant superintendent at Buffalo Public Schools who managed the bid process. “There’s a longstanding dichotomy about seat belts in this industry. Seat belts are everywhere else. That never sat well with me.”

The new seating technology was specified as part of a recent transportation bid. The district’s school bus contractor, First Student, was the successful bidder and retaining its long standing partnership with the Buffalo Schools.

“The process resulted in an almost ideal result,” added Fahey, who is now a consultant for VersaTrans, a routing company part of the Tyler Technologies school division. “Among the benefits, our children get to be transported in state-of-the-art buses with all the newest technology. And in the end, transportation costs to the school system actually decreased because of the competitive nature of the bidding process.”