NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007

School Buses Finally Getting Seat Belts
Texas, and other states break long tradition
July 24, 2007

Texas just decided that school kids should be strapped into buses equipped with lap and shoulder belts.

California, Florida, Louisiana, New York and New Jersey require seat belts on new school buses, too.

Yet most school districts across the country don't require seat belts on school buses -- largely because of cost and low fatality rates that say the big yellow bus already is safe.

But sentiment may be changing.

New federal guidelines due this fall are expected to propose voluntary standards for the use of belts. That's a shift in long-standing policy.

Researchers at Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio last year found 17,000 school bus-related injuries in the U.S. every year, a rate up to three times more than expected.

''People don't have a clue to the amount of force that's transferred by a side impact or rollover to the bodies of these school children,'' said expert Gary A. Smith.

Rare crash video from inside a Grant County, Ky., bus shows little kids being flung to one side then the other, as drug-impaired driver Angelynna Young swerves.

No one was killed in the crash. But all 17 kids were sent to hospitals, including Cody Shively, 12, who suffered serious head injuries. A section of his skull is still stored in a freezer awaiting surgical reattachment.

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