SB5103 - Seatbelts on School Buses

The Washington State Senate has a bill currently in committee to mandate seatbelts on yellow school buses in Washington State beginning with all buses purchased after June 30, 2007. SB5103 PDF
The sponsors of this bill are Senators Kline, Prentice, Keiser, Rasmussen, Fairley, Hobbs, Kohl-Welles, Weinstein, Shin, Pridemore, McAuliffe.
While well-meaning legislators are nothing new, having them sponsor a poorly-researched boondoggle that is detrimental to the safe transportation of school children in Washington state is frustrating.

First some background on seatbelts on school buses in general. This issue is a common cyclical hot button that uses a significant amount of emotion, rather than research and facts, to discuss the topic.

Parents all over the state are used to buckling-in their children when they ride in the family car. The merits of seatbelts in general have been fully covered in the discussions when it comes to automobiles.
The discussion when it comes to the yellow school bus is not as clear, especially as discussed in the press releases from politicians.

Leaving emotion and anecdotal experiences behind, let's look at what the experts say.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has looked into this issue more than once. In May 2006 they once again published a summary of information about the Yellow School Bus and seatbelts. School Bus Report May 2006 This report references some very important research done by credible scientists and engineers and is a summation of five other scientifically based papers.
The following list of links includes a number of important peer-reviewed researched reports and expert advice on the issue of seatbelts on yellow school buses.

Research and Reports:

• School Bus Report May 2006
• School Bus Safety: Crashworthiness Research May 2002
• Relative Risks of School Travel
• Letter to NHTSA from NASDPTS
  • Response from NHTSA
  • Official NASDPTS Recommendation
• Where am I Supposed to Sit?"
• NTSB - Bus Crashworthiness Video & Animations"

In reading these reports, seat belts on yellow school buses are not found to be effective in preventing injuries; in fact besides causing injuries, there are significant unintended consequences of trying to require seatbelts on school buses.

Economic Costs:

• 38% less seating capacity
  • this has an immediate capital cost of needing more school buses to transport the same number of children
  • a possible consequence: fewer children are transported and hence more children are injured using less safe modes of transporting children to and from school
• more adults are required on the school bus to supervise children's use of seatbelts, additional salaries or coordination of "volunteers"

Social, Discipline, Safety

• Who enforces seatbelt usage? Bus Driver? Assistant?
• Does bus move without children belted in? Will children be kicked off the school bus for non-compliance? This will again put them in more risky transportation modes. Will the bus be required to stop if a child removes their seatbelt while the bus is in motion? Too many unanswered questions with unintended consequences.
• Consequences for not using seatbelt, Who is responsible?: Liability if child is hurt because they aren't on the school bus
  • School District
  • Bus Driver
  • Student
  • Parent
• Seatbelts used as weapons
• Seatbelts tripped on or otherwise accidental injuries caused by the seatbelt or improper use of it.

To increase the cost of transporting children to the point that fewer students are transported on the safest form of transportation is counter-productive and short sighted. Putting more children at risk of accident should not be the purpose of our elected representatives.

Education costs are skyrocketing and to add additional laws that will not save lives, but could actually cost more lives doesn't make sense. The sponsors of this legislation should pull it and defer these kind of decisions to pupil transportation professionals that base their decisions on research and not emotional appeals with no scientific basis.

Most telling, a Fiscal Note has NOT been published on this Senate Bill as to the projected costs. The current cost for Pupil Transportation is woefully underfunded; the legislature does not even cover the existing funding deficit. The Washington Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee has published a review showing that Washington State Pupil Transportation is underfunded at $100 million per year already (K-12 Pupil Transportation Funding Study). Adding this additional cost with this new mandate, it will be even less likely to be funded adequately. Adding this type of feel good, non-fiscally responsible, scientifically-shaky legislation is not going to make children traveling to school any safer when they are already traveling in the safest mode of transportation available.

Posted by SCarnahan at April 03, 2007 04:32 PM | Email This