We have had a terrible tragedy here - a school bus swerved while apparantly trying to avoid a previous crash, went out of control, overturned and five schoolgirl passengers were killed (and 46 passengers were injured).
Since the crash, there has been a lot of debate around the fact that there were no seat belts fitted on the bus which crashed. There is little doubt that if seat belts were fitted on the bus and if they were used by the pupils on the bus then the death and injury toll would have lower.
However, there has been almost no mention of the lack of Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS) on the bus. If the bus had been fitted with ABS then the bus would not have skidded out of control, the bus would have been brought to a stop safely and the lack of seat belts would not have been an issue.
Definitely all school buses should have seat belts but more importantly, all school buses should have ABS fitted.
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I would also wonder if travelling on the bus was anything like when I was in school - not enough seats, people left standing; no storage for bags / books, so they can fall all about the place in the event of such an accident.
No change then. The government has a policy of providing 2 bus seats for every three school children who require transport. Couple that with the fact that school children’s school bags now typically weigh 1.5 stone and it is a wonder the casualty figures weren’t higher.
Just saw news about bus crash in Huntsville,Ala. which now has a death toll of 4 as of this evening Nov.21,2006. Seeing the report first this a.m., I was wondering if there were any seatbelts on that bus. Ironically, the following news story was the usual warning from the Ala State Patrol which said they would be doing roadchecks this Thanksgiving holiday period, and tickets would be written for people who were not wearing seatbelts at time of stops. This statement was then followed by the number of deaths during the 2005 holiday season, and it was stated how many of those killed were not wearing seatbelts. I have to wonder if even the news team caught the irony of this story following the one of the school bus tragedy.
I always thought that seatbelts were a missing thing on school buses.
Is there really a good reason for not having them? I suppose in case of an emergency, the driver would have to help unbuckle many panicking students.
My personal opinion is that it should not be allowed to use a scoolbus or any other bus without seatbelts. Seatbelts may save many lifes in the traffic and buses are not an exception!
I actually thought about this a long time ago. I was watching the news and there was footage from a bus which quickly when on it’s side. All the students from the top side fell on the students that were on the bottom side. Had the been wearing seat belts, this wouldn’t have happened.
To me, it’s only logical to place seat belts on buses.
As mentioned in the above comment I agree that every passenger should be able to put on a seatbelt. In my opinion it should not be possible to transport any living person or animal without offering seatbelts!