Should school buses have seat belts?

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1:21 PM Friday, June 4, 2010

Among the many dangers that loving parents worry about, few cause the immediate fear and anxiety that are triggered when news of a traffic accident involving a school bus is first heard. That sense of dread became a nightmare for an Ohio family last week when a school bus veered and rolled into a ditch in Muskingum County, near Zanesville, killing a 6-year-old kindergarten student.

On the same day (June 2) that Kasey King was killed in that accident, a bill that would mandate seat belts on school buses in Ohio was approved by the Ohio House transportation committee. The full House is expected to vote on the measure soon.

If it is eventually signed into law, there’s a good chance it will be known as “Kasey’s Law,” as the boy’s family has lent its support to the legislation. The bill, introduced by state Rep. Kathleen Chandler, D-Kent, would require lap and shoulder belts on all school buses purchased or leased after Jan. 1, 2014. Districts would not be required to install seat belts in their existing fleets because of the exorbitant cost of retrofitting buses.

Even though a handful of states have already adopted similar laws, the jury seems to still be out among many safety experts about whether seat belts in school buses make children any safer. Many contend that the “compartmentalization” featured in current school buses — students contained between padded seats — is protection enough and that seat belts could actually cause more injuries; others scoff at that notion, saying that seat restraints are the surest way to protect schoolchildren, especially in rollover accidents.

Most will agree, however, that students — statistically speaking — are safer in school buses than they are in their own parents’ cars, buckled in or not, and that most school bus deaths occur when students are outside the bus. Butler County residents witnessed that sad fact in March when a 15-year-old Lakota East High School student was struck and killed by a bus in early morning hours.

On May 21, another Lakota East bus was hit by a car — injuring the car’s occupants — but, fortunately, none of the 29 students aboard the bus was injured. Late last year, five accidents involving school buses occurred in Butler and Warren counties in less than two weeks, drawing scrutiny to bus safety practices.

Local school officials say policies are in place to make school buses as safe as possible, including stringent requirements for drivers. In 2009, more than 40 accidents involving school buses occurred in Butler County, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol, representing a decrease from the 79 recorded in 2006.

Oddly enough, a student had not been killed on an Ohio school bus since the 1960s, state officials told the Columbus Dispatch last week. That is, until Kasey King was killed — just as this discussion was heating up again.

Some other points to ponder:

• By not requiring seat belts in school buses, are we sending a mixed message to our children? After all, they must be buckled up from the time they leave the hospital as newborns, and most responsible parents — as their children get older — insist they always buckle up in the car. But then they are allowed to travel restraint-free on school buses?

• Many districts stagger schedules so that they can use the same buses to transport students in different grade levels. How much time will it take for a high school student to adjust a seat belt that was used earlier in the morning by a first-grader, and vice versa? Will the addition of seat belts mean less capacity per bus and thus a need for more buses in a district?

• Bus drivers already have challenging jobs, especially ensuring that students are behaving. Holding drivers responsible for guaranteeing that all students — including rebellious adolescents — are buckled in will be a time-consuming and stressful process. Getting all students unbuckled in the event of an emergency could be difficult, too.

• Is it possible to be too overprotective? School buses now have a fatality rate of 0.2 per 100 million miles, compared with the passenger car fatality rate of 1.44, Cox News Service learned from federal statistics. But that’s a problematic argument to make to a grieving family, like Kasey King’s.

As with most public policy issues, the debate boils down to money. It will cost about an additional $10,000 for each new bus to be equipped with seat belts, a cost that the Ohio Department of Education says will be passed on to districts. In other words, local taxpayers will have to pick up the additional costs if the budget-strapped state does not provide funding for this mandate. That may be a tough pill for districts to swallow in this difficult economy.

So what’s the answer? It’s only common sense that seat restraints would make our safe school buses even safer, but the costs must be weighed carefully — and not just the expense of installing the belts. New procedures will have to be created and additional time and labor will probably be required to ensure that the restraints are being used correctly — at least until they become habit to the next generation of students.

This feels like a decision that should be made by local school boards — since their voters will likely be footing the bill. Each local district is free to make that decision about seat belts now. But, minus a mandate from Columbus, how many local boards — some with their own severe budget problems — would make seat belts a higher spending priority than, say, new books or computers? A decree from Columbus will give local school boards the political cover to spend the money for safety features that likely will make a rare tragedy even more uncommon — and forfeit a little more local control to the Statehouse.

Fortunately, with the mandate not kicking in until 2014 (in the current proposal), districts will have time to plan and budget for the expense. We just find it sad, especially in light of last week’s death, that a state directive is required — if there truly is general agreement that seat belts on school buses will save lives.

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