Seat Belts on Buses?
Well intentioned …
…but a poor idea for student safety
By: Patrick Shaver, SORSA Executive Director
The recent tragedy that killed a student on a school bus at Tri-Valley Local has reinvigorated a
debate about whether school buses should be equipped with seat belts. It is an enormously
important discussion that we need to have.
Advocates of school bus seat belts are well intentioned. Everyone agrees that wearing seat
belts in automobiles saves thousands of lives each year. On the surface, it may seem logical to
extend the practice to school buses to achieve the same beneficial results. If it works in cars,
why not school buses?
The problem with this position is that requiring seat belts in buses would very likely to lead to
more student accident deaths, not fewer. Sometimes when we take an action to improve one
factor, it affects many other factors and can cause more damage than good.
There is a big difference between wearing a seat belt in a car and wearing one on a school bus.
To begin with, these are very different vehicles, with two very different masses. The injuries to
occupants are far less severe in padded buses than in an automobile, where they face large
amounts of glass and steel in close proximity. School buses use compartmentalization to reduce
the likelihood of injuries. Students have the protection of high-back padded seats behind them
and in front of them. The majority of the time, the school bus is travelling at low speeds. This is
why there are so few injuries and so few fatalities.
By far, the biggest reason why we should not equip school buses with seat belts is because it is
very likely to result in fewer bus riders. The increased cost associated with requiring seat belts
will cause some school districts to further reduce the number of buses and the number of
students transported.
SORSA’s view is that any action that reduces school bus ridership would be a huge mistake.
Why? Because the alternative to riding on a school bus is proven to increase the risk of student
transportation fatalities. Consider the fact that in the Unites States, about half of the k-12
students ride the bus, and the other half do not. The chart below clearly demonstrates the vast
difference in safety between these two students groups.
25 Million Students Do Not Ride Bus
25 Million Students Do Ride Bus
Passenger fatalities teen drivers
448
Bus passenger fatalities
5
Passenger fatalities adult driver
169
Danger zone outside bus
15
Pedestrian fatalities
131
Bicyclists fatalities
46
Total Fatalities
794
Total Fatalities
20
*Source: NHTSA National Center for Statistics and Analysis
These are facts. There are 40 times as many students killed who are not protected by the bus,
for the same population base.
Jeff Cassell, Vice President of School Bus Safety Company and a 20 year veteran specializing in
safe student transportation had this to say:
“If school bus ridership were reduced just 5%, that would mean 1,250,000 students would lose
the safety of the school bus, and 40 more students would be killed each year. If student safety is
the primary goal, the same dollars that would be invested in seat belts should instead be
invested in allowing more students to ride the bus. This would save the lives of 40 times as many
students – this is a no brainer.”
The greatest protection a child has travelling to and from school is the school bus, with or
without seat belts. Investing money in seat belts might save the life of one or two children each
year nationally. However, investing in more school bus riders will save the lives of dozens of
children each year.
Schools of Ohio Risk Sharing Authority
8050 N. High Street, Suite 160
Columbus, OH 43235-6483
Phone 866-767-7299
www.sorsaschools.org
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