School Bus Transportation News at STN Media

NHTSA Called on for Occupant Restraint Design Guidance

Ryan Gray | Senior Editor

The NTSB recognized the inherent safety of the yellow school bus but said improvements such as lap/shoulder seat belts, a body redesign and technology are available to further reduce student fatalities and injuries.

Following a presentation on the status of states adhering to recommendations made on improving school bus safety at passive grade rail crossings, NTSB Member Deborah Herson, a certified child passenger safety technician with a school bus endorsement on her CDL, changed gears and pointed out it has been seven years since the safety board recommended to NHTSA that a redesign of the passenger compartment with seat belts was necessary to improve child safety.

The 1999 recommendation said, within two years, NHTSA should develop “performance standards for school bus occupant protection systems that account for frontal impact collisions, side impact collisions, rear impact collisions, and roll overs.” Once those standards were in place, a second recommendation asked NHTSA to “require newly manufactured school buses to have an occupant crash protection system that meets the newly developed performance standards and retains passengers, including those in child safety restraint systems, within the seating compartment throughout the accident sequence for all accident scenarios.”
Charles Hott, NHTSA’s school bus administrator, told School Transportation News an updated school bus body design study is scheduled to be released in fiscal year 2007 and work is ongoing.

“By law, we have to have a test procedure,” he said by phone following the NTSB meeting. “Research is just research.”

In addition to the five states around the nation that have passed school bus seat belt legislation (California is the only to have implemented a lap/shoulder belt-specific rule), she said nine states looked at the school bus seat belt issue this past legislative session. Though no new laws were passed, many states look to re-debating the topic next year. And, yet, there remains no federal guidance on the topic.

“Louisiana passed a law requiring active (lap only) restraints per NHTSA’s recommendations beginning with the 2004 model year. They’re still waiting,” she said. “They haven’t gotten any advice on proper restraint use.”
Meanwhile, Texas has turned the issue over to individual school districts, as has North Carolina. Hawaii recently approved a resolution to perform a cost study on school bus lap/shoulder belts.

“We now have federal laws that require seat belts on all Type A and Type B school buses. About 32,000 of those have seat belts on them,” Herson added. “There’s enough data out there to begin to look at what (technology) exists on Type A and Type B school buses.”

Noting compartmentalization’s proven track record and that there are potential costs transporters face, not from installing the belts but potentially from increasing their routing and fleets by one-third, Herson stopped short of asking the NTSB to make a recommendation for school bus seat belts.

But, she added, “Somebody needs to set a standard. NHTSA is the appropriate body to do that. Let states make some educated decisions.”

NHTSA, meanwhile, said it actively works with states on any school bus seat belt issue, such as with Missouri’s recent legislation.

“Whenever states consider the school bus seat belt issue, we provide any guidance they ask for,” said Charles Hott, NHTSA’s school bus administrator.

Regarding the bus body design issue, Joe Osterman, NTSB’s managing director and a former lead school bus crash investigator, said it was already 25 years old when the board made its original revision recommendation to NHTSA. He also said the NTSB’s position on 2-point lap belts are they represent “obsolete technology” that were never designed for the school bus seat.

In May, NHTSA outlined its views on school bus seat belts and said its April 2002 Crash Worthiness Report to Congress found “the addition of lap belts did not improve occupant protection for the severe frontal impacts.”

It also stated: “States should take into consideration the increased capital costs, reduced seating capacities, and other unintended consequences associated with seat belts that could result in more children seeking alternative means of traveling to and from school or school-related events. These alternative modes of travel could put children at greater risk because they are not nearly as safe as school buses. If seat belts are to be beneficial, States that require them on school buses should ensure that the belts are worn properly by all school bus passengers.”

The board agreed to revisit the school bus redesign issue with NHTSA.

NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker found particularly troubling the average of 16 to 19 students who die each year outside the school bus, either being hit by illegally passing motorists or being run over by the bus. He said the manufacturing industry must continue to explore existing technology as well as innovations to improve safety, improve drivers’ abilities to do their jobs well and reduce the number of accidents.

“I hope that manufacturers will listen to the thoughts and the potential tremendous savings of life and reduction in accidents by virtue of utilizing these technologies,” he said. “There’s more out there that should be used as standard equipment to help the driver maintain control and understand his surroundings.”

Osterman added there has been the development of short-distance radar that signifies the presence of children around the bus, and “simpler solutions” like stop arms and crossing gates continue to be made available to the industry.