Length of Study Questioned at Meeting

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Aug. 20, 2007) — The Alabama Governor’s Study Group on School Bus Seat Belts met today to approve a request for proposals that will be sent out in the next week to all state colleges and universities, according to Joe Lightsey, the state pupil transportation director.

Those interested in conducting the study will have until 5 p.m. on Oct. 19 to send in their proposals.

“The study will probably begin soon after the first of the year,” said Lightsey. “Once we get all the responses, we’ll narrow it down to three or four proposals and then have them meet with the committee.”

The study group and the recipient of the study will work together to choose the districts involved in the three-year process, an issue that was discussed at today’s meeting.

“Some have said that three years is a long time, but it will be an annual study with reports each year,” said Lightsey.

According to the RFP, although the study will probably not give the state any answers on how to improve fatality rates for school bus accidents, it “may yield some vital information on seat belt usage, bus discipline, attitudes, passenger injuries, and/or other school bus safety issues.”

Lightsey also mentioned a possible collaboration between the governor’s task force and both the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State University, which recently published an updated report on school bus seat belt findings. North Carolina is undertaking its own task force to study issues relating to installing safety restraints.

“I think it would be a very cooperative effort. The North Carolina report is very interesting,” said Lightsey, who also mentioned the Alabama report will get a representative sampling of all types of routes, urban, rural, and so on. “We also projected putting a monitor on five of the buses to study the difference between buses with a monitor and those without one.”

The report will also help fuel a recently signed bill that requires North Carolina’s Child Fatality Task Force (CFTF) to complete a study on issues relating to installing seat belts.

The CFTF’s committee on unintentional deaths will present its findings to the legislature on or before May 1, 2008.

“If we see a clear solution, we will give the legislature a recommendation, but we usually just report on the issues,” said Tom Vitaglione, co-chair of the CFTF.