Texas Bill Mandating School Bus
Seat Belts Becomes Law

BEAUMONT, Texas (updated June 8, 2007) — Gov. Rick Perry signed only the nation's second state law requiring lap/shoulder restraint sytems on school buses and the first requiring them on all vehicles chartered for school activity trips.

Clifton Guillory, the pupil transportation director at Beamont Independent School District, said the governor signed HB 323 Friday morning at 11:45 a.m. CDT alongside the parents of Alicia Bonura and Ashley Brown, two West Brook High School soccer players killed in March 2006 when their charter bus crashed on the way to a game. Twelve others were injured when the bus rolled over.

The crash prompted Beamont ISD to require three-point occupant restraints on its school buses and any vehicles charted for school activity trips. Last month,  legislators voted to do the same statewide.

"It's been great," said Guillory, who currently has 30 of his school buses equipped with the lap/shoulder belt restraints. "We've got complete compliance. Everyone has bought into it. We don't move the bus until all the kids have buckled up."

But not everyone shares his enthusiasm.

"We're very concerned that the legislature is mandating seat belts when NHTSA has yet to determine if seat belts can be applied in a motorcoach application," said Kent Pressley, the vice president of industry relations for the United Motorcoach Association in Alexandria, Va.

Read a history of seat belts in school buses.