As investigators work to find out what caused the deadly school bus crash in Tennessee, the debate about seat belts on school buses is sparking new conversation.
Currently, there is no federal mandate requiring buses to be equipped with seat belts. But six states, not including Kansas or Missouri, have their own laws.
States that require seat belts:
- California*
- Florida
- Louisiana
- New Jersey
- New York
- Texas
* California is the only state to require three-point seatbelts
“School buses are no longer just being used to transport students to and from school in 20 miles per hour neighborhoods,” said Julie Cooley. “They are traveling upwards of 55 miles an hour now.”
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Cooley works for IMMI, a leading provider of seat belts to the school industry. The company’s crash test videos, she says, prove the need for students to buckle up.
“It’s very important that we afford kids the same protection that we are putting in our cars,” said Cooley.
Nationwide, about 25 million kids ride a school bus every day. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, about 72,000 kids get in an accident each year. Four of those kids die.
41 Action News reached out to several school districts and local bus companies. Most school buses are not equipped with seat belts, except Pembroke Hill. The private school mandated every student buckle up in 2014 after one of the school’s buses was involved in a crash the year before.
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Some safety experts say installing seat belts is too costly (it can cost seven to 10 thousand dollars extra to install them on just one bus) and unnecessary. They say buses are “designed to save lives.” For example, the seat cushions are padded and raised in order to create “compartmentalization.”
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Ariel Rothfield can be reached at Ariel.Rothfield@KSHB.com.
