NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007

Evidence For Seat Belts on Buses Still Growing
February 12, 2007

THE EVIDENCE supporting seat belts on school buses should drive Alabama legislators to require them.

A commission established by Gov. Bob Riley continues to take testimony in Huntsville, the scene last November of what is believed to have been Alabama's worst school bus accident.

On Nov. 20, a bus carrying Lee High School students careened off an interstate on-ramp in downtown Huntsville, killing four high school students and injuring dozens of others, including the driver.

In light of that accident, the governor asked the commission's members to decide whether seat belts should be required on the 7,200 school buses that transport nearly 363,000 students in Alabama every school day.

Fortunately, school bus accidents are rare, and injuries and deaths from such accidents are rarer still. Nevertheless, when an accident occurs, children should be protected from possible injury as much as technology will allow.

Indeed, what the commission has discovered so far seems to confirm what the Press-Register editorial board has argued since the November accident: Seat belts on school buses can save lives and prevent injuries.

In addition, seat belts would keep children in their seats, reducing rowdiness and other behavior that could distract a driver.

Granted, installing bus seat belts would cost the state several million dollars. But the cost would be worth it.

Charlie Gauthier, former director of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's office of defects investigation, told the commission last week that seat belts should be required.

While acknowledging that seat belts can't prevent all injuries and deaths, he said kids are safer when they use them.

Dr. Pippa Abston of Huntsville echoed Mr. Gauthier's testimony, saying the American Academy of Pediatrics believes safety restraints should be used.

The academy's study of the issue found that head injuries are the most common injury among the 8,000 or so kids hurt in school bus traffic accidents in an average year.

Inexplicably, the NHTSA has been slow to make a recommendation on restraints for large school buses. (Small buses must be equipped with them.)

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