Tests conducted more than a decade ago by Transport Canada (and others) clearly indicated that when a school bus is involved in a frontal crash, children are thrown forward and strike seat backs with their chests.

Many in the pupil transportation industry believe that this chest contact is safe and represents an adequate means of passenger protection i.e. "compartmentalization".

An editorial in the June 18, 1998 edition (Volume 338, Number 25) of the New England Journal of Medicine "Fatal Impact -- Concussion of the Heart," illustrates the danger to children of, "Sudden death following a sharp but inconsequential blow to the chest" as in a frontal school bus crash. As a result, the efficacy of "compartmentalization" and the resultant liability to those who transport children in school buses without seat belts must be reconsidered.

Dr. Art Yeager, DDS
Former President of the
National Coalition for Seat Belts on School Buses