Why aren't there seat belts on school buses?

[gittyup]

I never understood this. Every other 4 wheeled vehicle on the road is required to have seat belts. It has been proven that seat belts save lives. Why should children traveling to and from school be any different? I just don't get it. Does anyne have any insight here?

 

[Missus]

Because that would make them safe... What would be the sense in that???


I have always wondered the same thing...

 

[Yzzim]

I think school buses should have seatbelts as well

Even though school buses are built like a tank

 

[Z24]

some school busses do. i have seen them, although they are rare.

don't know the reasoning.

 

[Ornery]

I believe their accident records have proved that it wouldn't be worth the hassle. Hundreds of thousands of accident/injury free miles logged, like airliners. Not much incentive to go through the trouble...

 

[cxim]

Because God protects children & drunks......

the children ride...
the drunks drive...

 

[Jugernot]

Easy, they don't want that "weird" kid who always sits in the back to suck on the belts! YUMMMM!!!

 

[Passions]

In an accident, too many kids wouldn't be able to escape and die.

 

[Pastore]

It has been proven that the risk of injury is HIGHER when a child wears a seatbelt... the buses where i live DO have seat belts, and when i used to ride them, they told us NOT to wear them... kinda silly, but whatever is safer....

 

[Azraele]

I've seen a few that have them. I wonder if there is any info on school bus safety out there.

 

[Vikaden]

Ohhh its out there, some where

 

[Zenmervolt]

Lap belts are more dangerous than three point seat belts, but a lap belt is still better than nothing. I'd have to agree with the idea that the busses' safety record combined with the trouble of getting all those belted kids out of a bus if there were an accident is probably the reason that busses do not have seat belts.

Zenmervolt

 

[Deeko]

School buses are pretty safe...you would need to like smash into a building or go off a cliff before seat belts become necassary...if one of those things hit an oncomming car at 50 mph, it would probably plow right through it

 

[ltk007]

My school buses do, no one wears them.

 

[IamDavid]

A couple years ago after a bus collided with a semi in Alabama people started asking why not and the only explanation people could come up with is economics.. It would cost millions to add seatbelts to school buses.

 

[MISTER 2 U]

I think it is a combination of cost and safty.
it would cost to much to install seat belts on busses that do not have any.
It would also be a safty issue with kids trying to undo seat belts in a accident.
Also the Large seats are designed for safty by thier size.

 

[Handle]

Since school buses weigh so much more than most of the things they would collide with, they will generally emerge with less damage and fewer injuries due to a slower deceleration. A school bus colliding with a car is almost like a car colliding with a bicycle... you know which one will take the greater amount of damage. And as has been said, the kids would most likely not wear the seat belts anyway, plus, it would be very expensive to upgrade.

Though I definitely sympathize with anyone, or anyone who knows anyone who has been injured while in a school bus without seatbelts where seatbelts would have made a difference, I don't think the problem is that common. I hear about school bus fatalities very rarely.

Oh, and where I live, most public transit buses don't have seat belts either. It's not like they're targeting kids or anything.