By Bob Young, President
Oklahoma Association for Pupil Transportation
July 18, 1998

First, let me state that I am not against seat belts in school buses. What I am against is LAP BELTS in COMPARTMENTALIZED buses. It is not sending a mixed message to children about seat belts if this distinction is made. We don't use lap belts in cars anymore so why should we use them in school buses? They have been shown to do more harm than good.

I would support 3 point safety belts in school buses should someone design such a system that will work. Unfortunately to do so would require greater seat spacing and only two students per (standard size) seat. This would result in far less passenger capacity than we currently have which would increase the number of buses in fleets between 50% to 100%. It's hard enough to get funding for transportation now and I doubt many school districts will be willing to double their transportation budgets. (more on funding later)

But the technical problems would be even greater. Seat belt anchor points must be able to withstand tremendous forces. It would be necessary to build a free standing seat that would meet this criteria and then devise a mounting system that would keep it from being torn from the floor of the bus. I'm sure this could be done but the size and weight of such a system would not only result in increase costs for fuel but also decrease load capacity causing even more costs. Look at your car's seat belts. They are not attached to the seat - they are attached to the frame. How are you going to do this for every seat in the bus? To put such a system on a bus would increase the cost by up to 100% per bus. That is going to cause the school transportation budget to double again (so now we're up to a 400% increase in spending)

Now, about that funding. It's easy to say that no matter what it costs, even if it saves one life it's worth it. But, school districts do not have an unlimited supply of money and the current trend by the voting public is to reduce that supply even more. How many teachers are you willing to give up to provide more bus safety? How great a student to teacher ratio are you willing to accept for your child to improve the bus safety? How many text books are you willing to give up to improve bus safety? Almost everyone agrees that teachers are not paid enough, so are you willing to reduce teacher salaries to pay for bus safety? Are you willing to accept lesser qualified teachers due to lower pay to improve bus safety? WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE UP TO IMPROVE THE SAFETY OF THE SAFEST FORM OF TRANSPORTATION ON THE ROAD TODAY?!

If you want to spend money on bus safety, put that money where it will save the most lives. The most dangerous part of the bus ride is during loading and unloading. More kids are killed or injured here than in crashes. Put that money into educating the public to stop for buses while loading and unloading. Put it into driver training. Put it into driver pay to get more and better drivers. Put it into better mirrors. Put it into devices that keep the kids away from the bus wheels. In other words, let's solve the REAL problems - not just the perceived emotional problems that make us feel better.

Ask yourself: Why do the majority of people who have dedicated their lives and careers to the safety of our children and people in government whose job is safety oppose these lap belts on school buses? The only people (with a few exceptions)who are advocating seat belts on buses are those who do not deal with these problems on a day to day basis.

(Just one additional note. One of the comments by a parent asked why we don't just take the kids who cause the problems off of the buses. She should sit through some of the parent conferences to see just how difficult that is. The parent' view is that no matter what the kid has done, it's the bus driver's fault and their child is being punished unfairly.)

Bob Young, Director of Transportation
Union Public Schools
Tulsa, OK