Today I Learned: why school buses do not have seatbelts
After news of the tragic school bus accident in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I wondered why school buses do not have seat belts.
The short answer is, adding seat belts does not make school buses definitively more safe. There is also the issue with cost. Around $800 million dollars would be required to outfit all buses with seat belts.
The main points on why school buses do not have seat belts:
- Closely spaced and cushioned seats are extremely shock absorbent and provide almost a protective envelope around the child.
- They are some of the largest vehicles on the road, and are typically not driven very fast.
- Each seat will accommodate 5 year old children on up to late teens, making seat belt sizes an issue.
- Depending on age, a seat that could accommodate 3 small kids would only allow room for 2 seat belts due to the range of ages riding the bus.
- In most cases, a short jar forward into a heavily padded seat back will have less injuries than a strong jerk at the waist followed by whiplash.
- Longer evacuation times in an accident involving a fire.
- The time involved in checking if students are properly buckled.
- Increased injury to improperly buckled students.
Overall there is little if any benefit to add seat belts in school buses. Transportation experts focus on the "egg carton" safety strategy, where all a student has to do is stay in their seat to keep them safe.
On average 6 students per year die from school bus accidents, while 1,000 die walking, biking, or being driven to school.
A very interesting #til post :) Thank you.
Hey thanks! I watched a few videos last night and those were the main points I took away.
Regarding the latest line:
Can you find out how many die in cars and even more important,
how many die walking or biking BECAUSE of other children not walking or biking and instead being driven in cars?
I was able to find this: "Each year, approximately 800 school-age children are killed in motor vehicle crashes during normal school travel hours. About 2% of these deaths occur on school buses, while 74% occur in private passenger vehicles. Approximately 22% are bicycle or pedestrian accidents. More than half of these deaths overall are due to a teen driver."
-source is: http://www.saferoutespartnership.org/sites/default/files/pdf/school_bus_cuts_national_stats_FINAL.pdf
This source also puts bus deaths at 16, vs. my 6. Perhaps different years were averaged.
well said! it is alarming how many kids really die. painful!