¶ … School Buses Should Have Seat Belts Safety First on School Buses

The golden rule of "Safety First" is repeated ad nauseum to children at home and at school, and the safety is consistently revealed as the top priority of anyone involved in the lives of children. However, while many extreme security measures are being implemented in schools for the purpose of increasing safety for children, other very basic safety needs are being overlooked. It is now common for metal detectors, security video cameras, on-campus security guards, and extreme safety precautions to be implemented in most schools. Of course, the more traditional safety measures, such as having a school nurse on campus, first aid kits in every classroom, regulations banning harmful substances like asbestos and lead paint, and strict rules preventing risky student behavior are also standard in every school. Parents also take extreme precautions to protect their children outside of school in every possible way. Car safety is among the top concerns of many children's health advocates, and many measures are taken by the government and children's welfare services to ensure that proper use of car-seats and seat-belts are mandatory. In fact, parents can be charged with child endangerment or neglect if they fail to take the proper child-safety precautions when driving. With these considerations in mind, it is alarming that seat-belts are not mandatory on school buses. "The use of seat belts is a widely-accepted, effective safety measure in passenger cars, and many parents and safety advocates simply cannot understand how it is that if seat belts promise such benefits to car occupants, then these benefits are not offered to passengers on buses taking children to school." (Henderson & Paine) Parents, who would never leave the driveway with an unbuckled child, continue to load their children onto school buses; they put faith in those vehicles to safely transport their...

Seat-belts must be mandatory on all school buses because they reduce the risk of injury or death, car safety rules must be consistent, and there is no valid opposition for this rule.
Seat-belts should be mandatory for all school busses because they reduce the risk of injury or death for the passengers in case of an accident. According to Alan Ross, a spokesman for the National Coalition for School Bus Safety, installing seat-belts onto school busses is just common sense. "We know from our car experience that these restraints are life-saving." (Anderson & Cho) Fatal school bus crashes, such as the one in Arlington, Virginia just weeks ago, may have had a different outcome if seat-belts had been installed in the vehicle. The New South Wales Department of Transport reports that attaching lap/sash seat-belts to buses could indeed decrease the risk of injury to passengers on the bus. The effectiveness of seat belts has been proven in many studies, and it is estimated that seat belt use on large school busses could increase safety by up to twenty percent. For smaller school busses, the effectiveness would be even higher, and likely comparable to the fifty percent effectiveness of seat-belts that are used in conventional cars. (Henderson & Paine) The reason why seat-belts should be mandatory in all vehicles that transport children is obvious, and a school transportation expert at the California Department of Education stated it very simply: "It might prevent injuries or fatalities. You can't argue with that." (Anderson & Cho)

A second reason that it is vital to have safety belts installed on all school busses is because of the example this sets for children. As one doctor point out, "Although most adults have become accustomed to wearing a seat belt, which is compulsory in many parts of the world, many parents seem to take a less sensible…