SCHOOL BUS CRASH REPORTS 2006

Safety Seats Helped Prevent Crash Injuries
Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Eighteen Bethlehem Center preschoolers had a major ally when their bus rolled over Tuesday morning: safety seats.

The devices latched the 3- and 4-year-olds to their seats, keeping them from banging about the bus or flying out windows.

But the safety equipment is not found on most buses. They were in the Bethlehem Center bus because that preschool program is funded by federal Head Start, which requires them.

The safety seats have been mandated only 14 months, said Mike Harris, chief executive officer of Bethlehem Center. The center spent $87 for each seat in its 28 vehicles. "They're a very solid structure -- well worth the money," Harris said.

They're not required in typical school buses, unless the bus weighs less than 10,000 pounds.

"The restraint worked. It kept them from pinballing around inside the bus and hitting something," said Eric Morrison, spokesman for Medic, the county's ambulance service.

Similar safety restraints would reduce injuries in full-size buses, said Dr. Alan Ross, who heads the National Coalition for School Bus Safety. "You restrain them in passenger cars and airplanes. Why not require (seatbelts) in a large school bus?" Ross said.

Seat belts are required in New York and New Jersey school buses, but students may elect not to use them. Florida requires seat belts only in new buses.

With or without belts, federal studies show school buses are one of the safest rides, with four children killed nationally in 2004, the most recent data available. Research credits tall seats in the buses that create a safety compartment.

Parents of preschoolers should make sure their day care uses proper safety restraints and transports children in school-type buses and not 15-passenger vans, which are prone to rollovers, said Bill Hall, a manager at UNC's Highway Safety Research Center.

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