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TESTIMONIESTestimony - Penny GoetjenClick here to download this document (PDF) S.B. 1199 Penny Goetjen I am here to represent the many concerned parents who are unable to be here to speak; parents who are expected to be at work in order to earn a living or parents who are putting school age children on buses and caring for younger siblings. We are very concerned about the safety of our children on school buses and want to see seat belts on the buses. Seat belts are a very basic safety feature. The high-backed padded seats, or the compartmentalization concept, afford the children limited protection from injury in a front or rear collision but do little to protect them in a side collision and certainly nothing in a rollover situation. Most of the serious injuries and deaths related to bus accidents involve side collisions or rollovers where children become like ping-pong balls. Let's give them a fighting chance to survive an accident. Let's give them seat belts. Children are already familiar with seat belts. It's second nature for a child to get into a vehicle and buckle up. In fact kindergartners riding a 'school bus for the first time can become puzzled at not finding seat belts on his/her bus. Last year my son started kindergarten and was very excited about riding that big yellow school bus like his older brother. One day he came off the bus after being dropped off in front of our house and commented that there weren't any seat belts on the bus. He wanted to know why. I had a tough time coming up with a good answer because there isn't one. The kids need seat belts on school buses and they know they should be there. A school bus with children wearing seat belts is much more subdued, less distracting to the bus driver, than one without seat belts. We all know how kids sit on buses. They’re not sitting motionless in their little "compartments." Many will sit on the edge of the seat with their feet in the aisle or lean over the back of the seat to talk to friends; both of which turn into dangerous situations if the bus driver has to hit the brakes or is Involved in an accident. Even in a front or rear collision the compartmentalization of the seats will not prevent these children from being thrown. Only seat belts will. Please vote to put seat belts on school buses. Don't wait for our children to become statistics. Do what is right for our children's safety. This is not an issue of whether or not rescue workers are able to get kids off a bus after a crash. It is about helping them to survive the crash so they can take off their own seat belts and go on with their lives.
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