SCHOOL BUSES FOUND UNSAFE - IMMEDIATE RECALL DEMANDED

New Jersey.......The highly respected National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently reported that most large yellow school buses on the road today are defective because their occupant protection systems are "incomplete". As a direct result, children who ride back and forth to school every school day are unprotected and insecure on these vehicles.

Because the danger to children is current and the peril immediate, The Safety Lobby has petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to:

1. Recall all school buses to correct the defect and provide the needed side impact and roll over protection, and

2. Halt production and distribution of new school buses until needed protection is installed.

Compartmentalization
Over twenty years ago, when school bus seats were last upgraded by NHTSA in April of 1977, (FMVSS 222), children were promised, and subsequently have relied on, being safely compartmentalized between high-back, well padded and anchored seats for crash protection.

Since that time, agencies, departments and representatives of Federal, State and Local governments, school district officials, school bus manufacturers, pupil transportation directors, and the operators of school buses have consistently assured parents and children that this compartmentalization provided optimal school bus safety by containing child passengers within their seating compartment during accidents. Like eggs in an egg crate, the children would remain safely in their compartments. Parents and their children have placed their trust in this advice advanced by these transportation officials.

This faith was shattered when the NTSB concluded that, "Current compartmentalization is incomplete in that it does not protect school bus passengers during lateral impacts with vehicles of large mass and in rollovers, because in such accidents, passengers do not always remain completely within the seating compartment." The Board went on to point out that these passengers who were propelled from the compartment during collisions were more likely to be injured.

"Over 200,000 children have been injured since the inception of compartmentalization because of the failure of the compartment protect children in school bus accidents" said Dr. Arthur Yeager, co-founder of The Safety Lobby.

Added Phyllis Scheps, "In side and rollover accidents the youngsters have nothing to hold them in their so called compartments; the seats are slippery, the children small, they are often crowded three to a seat, that because school bus routes are local they are more prone to be hit from the side and because school buses have a high center of gravity are more likely to roll over in accidents."

Taxpayer Liability
The The Safety Lobby pointed out that, in addition to the pain and suffering of the injured child, the failure of compartmentalization is costly. School districts, manufacturers, distributors and operators of school buses are vulnerable when injury results from incomplete compartmentalization as described by the NTSB.

The Safety Lobby is aware of many multi-million school bus injury settlements predicated on compartment failure. These costs are directly or indirectly passed on to the taxpayer.

Remedy
The Safety Lobby pointed out that seat belts, which effectively keep the children in the compartment and thereby provide needed side impact and rollover protection are now required on all new large school buses in several states and on all new van type school buses sold in the U.S. Dr. Yeager pointed out that, "Seat belts are now assembly line products. All major school bus manufacturers are currently capable of installing and retrofitting seat belts on their school buses." Mrs. Scheps indicated that, "There is no objection to any other restraint system so long as it keeps the children in the compartment in side impact and rollovers and meets Federal Standards."

Scheps and Yeager continued, "There are an estimated 350,000 carrying millions of children in the defective school buses now operating in this country. Every extra day that these defective yellow school buses are on the road is yet another day of risk to the precious cargo they carry."

The Safety Lobby lists as its past achievements the enactment of two, first in the nation laws, one to require use of seat belts on school buses and another to require use of bicycle helmets. In addition, The Safety Lobby has been instrumental in passing legislation raising the drinking age to 21, requiring school buses to have high back padded seats, roof hatches and crossing gates, child restraint laws, moped helmet use and providing for ice cream truck stop signs.

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