TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Students Will Ride In Safety

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: October 16, 2008

WASHINGTON - Smaller school buses will have to be equipped with lap-and-shoulder seat belts for the first time and larger buses will have higher seat backs under a government rule announced Wednesday.

The seat belts will only have to be installed in new buses weighing 5 tons or less, and the requirement will not take effect until 2011. These smaller school buses are already required to have lap belts, but not the safer, harness-style belts. There is no seat belt requirement for larger buses.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said she stopped short of requiring seat belts for larger buses because that could limit the number of children that can squeeze into seats, forcing some children to travel in ways that aren't as safe as school buses.

School districts sometimes expect as many as three younger children to share a bus seat, but if there are only two belts installed per seat then fewer children can ride the bus.

"We wanted to make sure that any measures we put forth don't needlessly limit the capacity of the buses and then force that school or that school district to have more children walking, riding with parents, biking, etcetera," Peters told The Associated Press in an interview.

Schools buy about 2,500 of the smaller school buses each year, the Transportation Department said. The buses seat about 16 to 20 students. Larger buses carry more than 50 students.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT