Local Man Weighs in on Seat Belts for Buses Debate

By Brian Nowlin, Staff Writer

LUNENBURG – The debate regarding the use of seat belts on school buses has been going on for many years with both pros and cons discussed heavily. One Lunenburg resident recently discussed his thoughts on the issue and why he feels seat belts should be implemented on local buses.

Billy Johnson spoke to school officials on Monday night and stated, “The goal is to be safety first and not money first.”

He would go on to discuss how his grandchildren will not even get in a car without using their seatbelts and that this a requirement by law. Johnson continued on to say that Lunenburg should “go ahead and get this started, while others are still doing studies.”

Johnson admitted that he did not know all of the proper channels that would be needed in order to implement seat belts on buses, but he suggested maybe fundraising in order to help with the financial burden.

For school officials, both locally and throughout the country, this discussion continues with differing opinions. One of the biggest issues outside of the huge money costs that schools would incur to retrofit buses is that buses are designed with high seats and other safety features with kids in mind and The National Highway Safety Administration has actually come out and stated that in certain crash scenarios the seat belts caused more physical harm than in a crash without belts.

Some of the pros listed for having seat belts in buses include a reduction in injuries to out-of-position students kept in their seats by seat belts, use of seat belts can lead to improvements in passenger behavior and distractions to drivers and the use of seat belts in school buses will help to reinforce seat belt educational messages aimed at school-age children with the carry-over effect helping to remind children to use seat belts in cars.

Some of the cons include the design of seats and the fact that data indicates that seat belts can be harmful if jackknifing of the students’ bodies over the belts and into the back of the seats in front of them occurs,  evacuation of the bus in case of fire could be hampered by belted occupants, bus drivers would be required to help many students properly fit the belts causing logistic issues and the overall cost would reach into the hundreds of thousands for many school districts who simply do not have the funding.

Lunenburg school officials said that they appreciated the thoughts and comments by Mr. Johnson and would take them under advisement.