Students on school Used buses today are safe, at least that’s what most parents will tell you about sending their kids off to their classes on a daily basis. However, one set of parents found out things the hard way recently as the debate has heated up as to whether or not seat belts should be mandated within all school Used buses. You would assume that they are already in place, but that’s not the case as most public schools are still running Used buses that date back to the 1970s.
The Issue
Parents in the Louisa-Muscatine schools found out a hard lesson about what the government is doing and not doing to keep their children safe. A phone call was placed to parents about a Used bus accident that definitely sent shockwaves. Parents were told that their children were in the hospital and that an accident had occurred. Parents immediately had visions of disaster, with rolling Used buses, fire, and more sending many into hysterics. The interesting thing that many reports noted was that no one really asked about whether or not seatbelts were in place.
The Changes Don’t Arrive
When it comes to safety, there is a national institute that researches this type of thing. The National Transportation Safety Board has studied the issue on various occasions, and have found that the old style buses, which are often still used today, cause serious problems in accidents. The issue with modernism and buses is that these are used buses, and shuttle bus options that are carrying children. They are not “new” or modern, which is something that should be changed.
Research has indicated that seat belts are definitely worth chasing, and implementing in the right arenas. But why aren’t they implemented across the board? That’s the question that should be asked, considering that it’s children’s safety in place here.
The Students
At the end of the day, there are two major issues at play here. First and foremost, you are going to find that the issue relies heavily on the money. It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to get this worked out across all major school Used buses. Not only that, students would have to actually put them on. The problem with research that was conducted through the University of Alabama shined light on this. The major light pointed that taxpayers would have to not only pay a lot of money to fund this, but students themselves would have to put the belts on. Most didn’t, and therefore the implementation causes issues overall.
At the end of the day, the crash brings to light a lot of ideas into used buses, and elements of safety, which isn’t going to change anytime soon.