Commentary; Posted: 12/20/06
Bus accident a lesson for all schools
By Don Heinzman
While the recent school-bus-car accident in Ham Lake raises questions about student passenger safety, transportation directors are not recommending installation of three-point harness seat belts in the buses.
The accident, allegedly caused by faulty brakes and causing 18 students to be hospitalized, is rare in Minnesota.
In three districts surveyed, Anoka-Hennepin, Forest Lake and Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, transportation directors say that during their tenure no students have died inside a school bus due to an accident.
In Minnesota last year there were 717 school bus crashes, but no student inside a school bus was killed. There were seven fatalities mostly involving drivers whose vehicles struck the bus.
School transportation officials, in general, oppose mandatory lap seat belts for school buses. On the contrary, they say lap belts could cause students to suffer serious abdominal, head and spinal injuries.
The only effective seat belt in the school bus would be the three-point ones installed in automobiles. The cost would be $8000 more per bus and a loss of a third of the school bus space. A third of the fleet of buses would have to be replaced.
Thereís no data that proves having seat belts would prevent any more injuries and save any more lives.
Transportation officials say that little elementary age children who are belted into their seats could become confused should the school bus catch fire or plunge into water. The time to evacuate a bus of 50 to 60 children is one and a half to two minutes.
What parents fail to understand is that each seat area in the bus is treated as a compartment where the seats, front and back are padded. In case of a jolt, the energy from the childís body absorbs the entire blow in the padded unit. Usually there are three elementary kids and two high school students to a seat in the bus.
A school bus seat belt bill has been introduced in previous legislatures and has not been passed. No doubt this latest accident will stir more discussion at the Capitol.
The National Highway Safety Administration continues to test bus safety measures and does not recommend installing seat belts on the school buses.
There is a recommendation to raise the height of the seat back from 24 to 28 inches, a standard not mandated in Minnesota. Some say this could be too high and make the little riders less visible to the driver who is accountable for discipline and incidents in their bus.
Transportation directors, however, are concerned about safety of children riding in their buses.
In the three school districts contacted for this editorial, drivers must pre-inspect the bus every time they are about to drive it. They inspect the brakes, the lights, the emergency brake and tires and write a report of their findings. They also inspect the bus after the run.
In Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, school mechanics give every bus a maintenance inspection every 4000 miles.
Anoka-Hennepinís bus policy is to replace buses every 10 years.
To prevent injury to students getting off and on the bus, crossing guards are being installed on the busesí front bumpers in some districts. As they are extended, students walking around them are visible to the drivers.
In Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, older students act as bus patrols and safely help students on and off the bus.
Having expensive, three-point seat belts which would require adding a third more to the bus fleet in the long run probably would not prevent any more injuries. Using just lap belts only could cause more serious injuries to neck, head and spine.
This latest school bus accident has focused the publicís attention on school bus safety, and school boards would be wise to ask serious questions about the fleet that transports their students.
Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605