Today I would like to address the issue of school bus safety by requiring seat belts in school buses for all of our students in Indiana. The single biggest school bus safety concern for parents is the lack of seat belts according to an American School Bus Council Poll. In that poll, 80% of all parents surveyed believe that all school buses should be equipped with lap/shoulder belts. 60% do not believe that riding on a school bus is as safe as riding in a car.
Research by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concludes that compartmentalization is incomplete in a bus and does not protect school bus passengers during lateral impact with vehicles of large mass and in rollovers. Second in the minds of parents is a concern about discipline problems, an issue that has proven to be strongly impacted by the addition of seat belts. Keeping students in their seats also helps stop the bullying problems that many times occur on the bus.
For most children, their first ride on the school bus is the first time they ever ride unrestrained in a motor vehicle. In other words, the only place a child is taught to not wear a seat belt is in school transportation. To allow school bus passengers to remain unrestrained gives a contradictory message to our children that seat belts can be unnecessary inside a moving vehicle. When our children get on the bus and don’t buckle up, the habit of seat belt use is not reinforced and we miss a prime training opportunity. School buses can be important extensions of the classroom for training children to build this critical life-long habit.
According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) report, every day there are over 144 school bus accidents, 26,000 per year in America and more than 9,500 children are injured in school bus accidents each year. An average of 21 school-age children die in school transportation related crashes each year. An even more alarming set of statistics come from the American Academy of Pediatrics. In that survey, there were an estimated 61,000 school bus related injuries treated in the U.S. emergency department from 2001-2003, which averages to approximately 17,000 children injured in school bus accidents each year.
At least six states require large school buses to come equipped with seat belts (California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, and Texas). There are a number of other states in the nation looking to require seatbelts in buses as well.
Now as to Indiana, let’s discuss what has happened to us much closer to home.
Last march, Donesty Smith, age 5, died from a crash when her school bus, which was without seatbelts, carrying 50 children to Indianapolis Lighthouse Charter School collided with a concrete bridge pillar. Ten more students were injured. One of the children broke his leg when he was hurled out of his seat and slid beneath several rows of seats. If he had just remained in his seat, he wouldn’t have been hurt.Those poor kids became human missiles. Many other kids had leg and ankle injuries and post-traumatic stress because there were no seat belts on the bus. This is a tragedy that would have and could have been avoided if Indiana had just required seat belts on our school buses.
There is a total 16,353 buses in Indiana at the current time. Approximately 13,000 are owned by the school systems or government, and 2,000+ are owned by private contractors. Because the average lifespan of a bus is 14-15 years old, there are approximately 1,000 new buses a year put into the market. It costs approximately $8,000 per new bus to put these shoulder and seatbelts in, which equates to $121.00 per child.
Seatbelts for buses in Indiana have been around for over 10 years. Many counties utilize seatbelts in their buses to some degree. Bartholomew County is a flagship school district that is implementing seatbelts in all of their school buses. Because I believe it is cost prohibitive to change out all 16,000 buses in one fell swoop, my proposal is to require seat belts in each of the new buses as they come off the assembly line, thus providing a line item expenditure of approximately $6.4 million public dollars per year until all of the buses are in compliance.
Proposing legislation for school bus safety is one more way I will fight to protect the rights of working families in Southwest Indiana as your next State Senator.
The only truly effective safety equipment on a school bus is the driver. And as for the school bus that collided with a stationary object, why didn’t the driver maintain full control of the vehicle? Let’s analyze this matter. There are 40 to 50 children on a school bus with a driver and maybe one monitor to whack the one or two bullies. The bus collides with a vehicle and/or a stationary object, and all the kids are buckled up. How long does it take to evacuate a bus without seatbelts versus a bus with seat belts? The answer is one hell of a lot less time.
Terry, do us all a great, big favor and go back to chasing ambulances.
My 6yo knows how to unbuckle her seatbelt with out assistance. I would much rather her not get slammed into the back of a seat. She started kindergarden yesterday and in my car is still required by law to use a booster seat but yesterday I sent her off unprotected in a bus. I think erring on the side of caution of seat belts is a good idea. If it saves one child’s life its worth it. Esepcially if its your child.
The bus driver actually had a heart attack. http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/local/marion_county/coroner-driver-in-fatal-school-bus-crash-had-heart-attack
Terry great position paper.
I’m a Republican but i shill be voting for you this November because I like your conservatives values.
Has anyone heard from Brecker lately? Bet she still busby having fund raisers?
34 years in public office is enough!
I have heard from Becker lately, yes. She has been connecting with constituents all across district #50. Saw her down in Newburgh the other day, and last week saw her at National Night Out.
No, Becker isn’t the most conservative Republican in the Senate, but voting for Terry White because of his “conservative values”? Really?
Thanks to Mr. White for standing up for our kids.
Wonder what Becker thinks about this issue?
I agrre with the above posting that 34 years in elected office is enough.
My vote shall be spent on Mr. White because he isn’t afraid to take a political stand.
Is it true that a great leap forward in school bus safety would be seating the occupants backwards?
Is it true that White’s suggestion of seatbelts on school buses is not only a great idea for immediate safeguards, but also would be a great teaching tool for the children with regard to seatbelt use in their parent’s vehicles, etc.?
Is it true that while White shows the good sense to bring the school bus seatbelt issue forward, one has to ask if he has the balls to back a motorcycle helmet law?
If Becker wins this time, she shall be serving in elected office forn 40 years at the end of her new term.
It’s time for her to go!
…and then the first time a school bus drives or flips over into a body of water and drowns everyone on board because they couldn’t escape their seatbelts, or a fire incinerates them all, you’ll hear public outcry about taking the seatbelts back out.
Curtain airbags might be worth looking into, but seatbelts is a toss-up. The bottom line is there is no way to make transportation 100% safe.
Furthermore, using statistics like “60% do not believe that riding on a school bus is as safe as riding in a car” is absolutely meaningless. Since when is hard data trumped by the neurotic, uninformed beliefs of the masses?
When I was in school, I was on a school bus that collided with a car. The car was obliterated. The bus had nary a scratch. In fact, I got on the same bus the next day and went to school. I was involved in a collision in my own car with a school bus years later, and again, the bus: 1 car: 0. No one on the bus was hurt, but my car was totaled.
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