Center for Urban Transportation Research
College of Engineering
University of South Florida
Final Report, August 1994

Executive Summary
A national scale, exploratory study was conducted to collect information pertaining to the operational experiences of the school districts in the U.S. that operate 20-passenger or larger school buses (referred to hereafter as "large" school buses) equipped with seatbelts (lap-belts) to transport their general student population. A mail-out, mail-back questionnaire was mailed to gather the requisite information from the student transportation director or related personnel in the school districts included in the sample. The sample consisted of 814 school districts located in 15 states representing diverse cross-sections of urban and rural American society. Of the 814 school districts included in the sample, 763 were located in New York State. This is primarily due to the fact that New York State began mandating the installation (but not the use) of seatbelts on July 1, 1987.

The purposes of this exploratory study, the terminology "general student population" was defined as including all students that are transported daily to and from school, excluding handicapped and physically disabled students. In most school districts in the U.S., handicapped and physically disabled students are required to ride in school buses equipped with seatbelts due to their cognitive and/or physical limitations. For this reason, this study focused only on the operational issues related to transporting non-handicapped and non-physically-disabled students.

Individuals concerned with the safety of children transported in large school buses agree that reducing the probability of death and injuries to these passengers is of paramount importance. The installation and use of seatbelts is one among many strategies suggested to improve the safety of students transported in large school buses. Other strategies include on-board adult monitors, higher seat-backs (24-inches, as measured from the seating reference point), crossing control arms, dual stop signal arms, extensive driver and student safety training, enforcement of laws against the illegal passing of stopped school buses, and reflective markings, to name but a few.

Due to a lack of empirical evidence pertaining to the effectiveness (ability to reduce fatalities and injuries to school bus occupants when an accident occurs) of seatbelts in large school buses, it is difficult to quantitatively determine if seatbelts provide a significant measure of safety to the occupants of these school buses. For this reason, other questions must be answered, such as: "Will students traveling in large school buses equipped with seatbelts use them?"; "Will the use of seatbelts in large school buses improve on-board students conduct?"; and "Are students using the seatbelts in these school buses for the purpose for which they were intended?" To determine the answers to these and other critical questions, the collection of information on the operational experiences of these school districts is important in order to gain the necessary insight and understanding of the many tangential operational factors that pertain to this issue. Compilation of this information will permit a governmental or private entity contemplating the installation of seatbelts to go beyond emotion, politics, and the few technical studies 1 that have investigated this issue and rely more on what is actually happening in the school districts in the U.S. that are currently using seatbelts in their large school buses. The detailed results of this effort are contained in this final report and condensed in this executive summary.
Source: CUTR Report, pp. iii to pp. vii

Summary & Conclusions pps. 41-44
The information contained in this exploratory study provides a useful framework for examining the operational experiences of the school districts in the U.S. that currently operate seatbelt equipped large school buses for transport of their general student population. Through analyses of the collected data from the returned questionnaires, the study found the following:

1. Overwhelmingly, the majority of the students riding in seatbelt equipped large school buses do not wear the seatbelts while being transported. The tabulated data revealed that 77.5 percent of the respondents indicated that their students use the seatbelts 10 percent or less of the time while riding in the school buses, while only 6.1 percent of the respondents indicated that their students use the seatbelts 51 percent or more of the time.

2. Overall, student conduct did not improve while riding in the school buses as a result of the provision of the seatbelts and, in a few instances, the questionnaire respondents indicated that student conduct actually had become worse. The tabulated data revealed that 90.4 percent of the respondents indicated that student conduct did not improve, while 9.6 percent indicated that it did. In one instance a respondent noted that on-board conduct had improved, but only among elementary school students.

3. Student vandalism of the seatbelts is widespread. The tabulated data from the returned questionnaires indicated that 88.4 percent of the responding school districts had experienced student vandalism (i.e., damage to the seatbelt buckle, cutting of the seatbelt straps, etc.). This student vandalism resulted in additional maintenance costs and additional school bus downtime for the repair of the vandalized seatbelts.

4. Nearly 66 percent of the respondents that indicated experiencing an accident involving a seatbelt equipped large school bus in their respective school district indicated that there were no injuries to the passengers and that the presence or use of the seatbelts was not felt to be a factor related to the passengers receiving no injuries and 9.7 percent of the respondents indicated that there were no injuries to passengers and that the presence or use of seatbelts was felt to be a contributing factor. In addition, 5.2 percent of the respondents indicated that there were injuries to passengers in spite of using the seatbelts and 4.3 percent of the respondents indicated that there were injuries to passengers potentially resulting from the use of the seatbelts.

5. The majority of the respondents indicated that the primary instances of student seatbelt misuse was students using the seatbelts as weapons to strike other students. In addition, the respondents also noted that is was very common for students to tie or buckle the seatbelts across the aisles, causing other boarding or alighting (deboarding) students to trip over them.

6. Question 5 asked the respondents to comment on the impetus that caused their school district to install seatbelts in their large school buses. The following is an example of a respondent comment: "New York State law. It was a bureaucratic quick fix to an emotional issue that, on paper, looked good, but in practice had no impact but to raise the cost of doing business and to reduce the amount of available funds for important bus safety programs that would save lives. I firmly believe that the money spent on lap-belts could be better utilized and would save more lives if it was spent on bus driver and student safety training."

7. Approximately 94 percent of the school districts that responded to the survey do not have a mandatory or universal seatbelt usage policy. This result may stem from the problems related to enforcement and the potential liability associated with the mandatory or universal use of the seatbelts.

8. In the 6 percent of the school districts that indicated having a mandatory use policy, the school bus driver is the person utilized to enforce the use of the seatbelts, followed by on-board adult monitors, student patrols, and a designated student (non-patrol).

9. The results of the tabulated data from the respondents who have a mandatory seatbelt student usage policy currently in effect also reported the highest student usage of the seatbelts and the highest overall level of satisfaction with the performance of their seatbelts. It appears from the analysis of the data that the existence and enforcement of a seatbelt use policy is essential in order to achieve student usage of the seatbelts.

10. The results of a chi-square (X2) test of independence determined that a statistical relationship exists between a mandatory seatbelt use policy and actual student seatbelt use. In other words, the fact that a school district has a mandatory seatbelt use policy has a positive effect on the likelihood or change that students will use the seatbelts or, stated another way, according to the sample data, student school bus seatbelt use is dependent on the presence of a mandatory school bus seatbelt use policy.

11. Approximately 35.4 percent of the questionnaire respondents indicated being "very dissatisfied" with the performance of seatbelts in their large school buses, while only 3.8 percent indicated being "very satisfied."

12. A total of 6.9 percent of the responding school districts indicated that the issue of liability regarding the lack of seatbelts in their large school buses was a contributing factor that led to their installation. In addition, nearly 16 percent of the respondents indicated that they are concerned about the issue of liability related to the enforcement of seatbelt use.

13. The tabulated data evidenced that 18.9 percent of the questionnaire respondents indicated that the improper wearing (i.e., improper adjustment or placement across the pelvic region, etc.) of a seatbelt by a student in the event of an accident that might result in an injury to the student is an issue in their school district.

14. The tabulated data revealed that approximately 10.7 percent of the responding school districts do not provide instruction to their students regarding how to properly fasten and release the seatbelts, the correct placement of the seatbelts on the student's pelvic region, the time when the seatbelts should be fastened and released, and the acceptable placement of the seatbelts when not in use.

15. Approximately 3 percent of the respondents indicated that they did retrofit their school buses with seatbelts. This modest result is due to the problems and possible risks associated with the retrofitting of seatbelts in school buses.

16. As indicated by the tabulated data, the average cost to install seatbelts in newly purchased Type B school buses was approximately $1,633 per bus; for newly purchased Type C school buses the cost was approximately $1,800 per bus; and for newly purchased Type D school buses the cost was approximately $1,550 per bus. See Table 1, on page 6, to reference the different school bus types.

17. The tabulated data revealed that only 4.1 percent of the respondents indicated that the presence of seatbelts in their large school buses might have contributed to students using the seatbelts in other vehicles. It should be made clear to the reader, however, that the information related to this result is purely anecdotal in nature and that no concrete evidence exists to substantiate that a relationship exists.

18. The tabulated data evidenced that the average (mean) cost of seatbelt maintenance due to student vandalism per year per school bus by type of school bus was approximately $348 per Type B school bus, $603 per Type C School bus, and $596 per Type D school bus.

As a direct outcome of the results from the tabulated questionnaire data and due to the lack of conclusive evidence relating to the effectiveness of seatbelts in large school buses, the findings from this exploratory study indicates that policymakers and decisionmakers should examine the installation and the use of seatbelts as well as a wide range of other strategies to improve the safety of children riding in school buses such as extensive safety training of the school bus drivers and students and protection of students in the school bus loading and unloading zones. Also, since there is a dearth of empirical data related to the effectiveness of seatbelts compared to other alternatives, factors such as capital, installation, and maintenance costs, the potential benefits in terms of injuries reduced and lives saved, ease of implementation, and residual value at the end of the service life span should be considered.

In addition, if seatbelts are installed in large school buses and their use mandated, then important questions related to education and enforcement need to be resolved. If the goal of a school district is universal use of seatbelts by all passengers of large school buses, then the results from this exploratory study suggest that a number of steps are required in addition to the installation of seatbelts including required use at all times, monitoring of use, clarification of the policies and procedures regarding enforcement of use, and consistency of the enforcement of the policies and procedures.

Lastly, the results from this study evidenced that enough large school bus accident data should exist to compare the fatality and injury rates among belted and unbelted occupants of large school buses in the school districts included in the sample. Therefore, an additional recommendation is to obtain multiple years of large school bus accident data from the school districts in the study sample and analyze it to quantify the safety potential of seatbelts.

Footnotes:
1. National Transportation Safety Board. 1987 Safety Study - Crashworthiness of Large Postandard School Buses. Bureau of Safety Programs. Washington, D.C.; Farr, G.N. 1985. School Bus Safety Study - Volume I. Traffic Safety Standards and Research. Transport Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Urcell, C.R. 1977. A Study Relating Seat Belts for Use in Buses. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas; Northrop et al. 1980. Statistical Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 222: School Bus Passenger Seating and Crash Protection. U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C.; Transportation Research Board. 1989. Improving School Bus Safety - Special Report No 222. National Research Council, Washington, D.C.; Severy et al. 1967. School Bus Passenger Protection. Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineers, University of California at Los Angeles, California.