NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2004

The Great Seat Belt Debate
(Revised June 21, 2004)

The issue of whether or not to install seat belts in large school buses has been a matter of public policy debate for more than a quarter century. A handful of states and localities have enacted legislation to require the devices, but more states rejected the idea than accepted it.

Following ground-breaking research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2002, and the introduction of three-point lap/shoulder belt systems in 2003, the terms of the debate have changed. To properly understand the likely future outcome of the debate it is helpful to understand the new technology first.

Over the years, the terms "seat belt" and "safety belt" have been used to describe restraint systems in motor vehicles, and even airplanes.  From the 1950s through the mid 1960s, such terms were easily understood, since lap belts were the only type of seat belt system available.  Starting in the late 1960s, lap/shoulder belts were installed in new passenger motor vehicles. 

As a result, the continued use of the terms "seat belt" and "safety belt" causes confusion. This is especially true with respect to large school buses.

Meanwhile, all manufacturers of small or so-called Type A school buses always install either 2-point lap belt systems or 3-point lap/shoulder belt systems on their products. This is required by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 222.

Up until mid-1991, the only type of "seat belt" or "safety belt" that was available for installation in a large school bus was a lap belt.  However, since lap/shoulder belts are now far and away the most prevalent type of "belt"  system in passenger motor vehicles, it is likely that many people who read or hear the terms "seat belt" or "safety belt" believe that it referred to lap/shoulder belts, when if fact the term referred to lap belts.

This misinterpretation can easily give the reader both incorrect and inappropriate information, and could lead the reader to make ill-informed decisions that could actually increase the safety risks to children.

How did this conundrum involving such an important safety device come about?

As far back as 1967, researchers at UCLA conducting pioneering research into school bus occupant protection, recommended "passenger protection of lap belts when used with high back seats" in school buses. In the intervening years, this recommendation become a cornerstone of the belief that seat belts should be required in all large school buses. [Remember however, that in the 1960's lap belts were seat belts, and vice versa.]

Now, three decades later, the Great Seat Belt Debate has entered a new phase. In the past couple of years, three companies have begun to offer 3-point lap/shoulder belt systems. C.E. White Co. and IMMI are independent suppliers to an increasing number of school bus manufacturers. IC Corp., a major bus manufacturer, developed a 3-point lap shoulder belt system available only on its bus products.

At this point it is helpful to look at both the case for, and the case against, "seat belts." But bear in mind throughout the following discussion -- and the more than 100 documents contained in the Occupant Restraint section of the website -- that the use of the terms "seat belt" and "safety belt" can be confusing. Scholarship does not permit changing the language in the original documents that framed The Great Seat Belt Debate, many more than a decade old, to reflect the evolving use of these terms. Instead, the reader has to judge whether the original author likely was using the term seat belt to denote a 2-point lap belt or 3-point lap/shoulder belt. [Webmaster note: It is interesting that some authors have contacted this website and requested their documents be removed altogether, as their solution to the evolving meaning of these important terms.]

Finally, the discussion that follows is about large school buses, i.e. over 10,000 lbs. GVWR and not small school buses, under 10,000 lbs. GVWR. All small school buses are required to have either lap belts or lap/shoulder belts at all designated passenger seating positions. Until recently, lap belts were the only systems used in small school buses.

Historically, the primary reasons proponents have urged seat belts on large school buses include the following:

• If a crash should occur, the use of seat belts will reduce the probability of death (and the severity of injuries) to children correctly seated in post-1977 buses.

• Seat belt usage improves passenger behavior and reduces driver distractions;

• Seat belts offer protection against injuries in rollover or side impact crashes;

• Seat belt usage in school buses has a carryover effect to future use when riding in other vehicles;

• The cost to install seat belts is nominal.

Meanwhile, opponents of 2-point seat belts in large school buses contend otherwise.

• More children are killed in the danger zone around the school bus and as pedestrians walking to and from the school bus stop, than inside the school bus. Seat belts are of no value in these accidents; There is no data to show that seat belts would reduce fatalities or injuries;

• Fatalities inside school buses represent a very small percent of all school bus fatalities;

• Over the past two decades compartmentalization has demonstrated it works;

• The carryover value is negligible, in fact there is no proof of carryover value;

• Money proposed for seat belt installation would be better spent on other safety measures.

The bottom line, say opponents, is there are no data to show that a safety problem exists in school buses that would be solved by the installation of lap belts.

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