Oak Park parent doesn’t want
to wait for school bus safety belts
By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

State Assembly Bill 15 (AB-15), would require that each passenger in a school bus be provided a safety belt and be expected to properly use it.

School buses currently aren’t required to have seatbelts.

AB-15 was to go into effect on Jan. 1, but the date has been extended until July 1, 2004 for Type II school buses (15 passengers or fewer) and until July 1, 2005 for Type I school buses (standard capacity). It was decided that more review was necessary.

Grace Bartsch, a mother of three Oak Park students, asked the Oak Park Unified School District (OPUSD) board of education last week to guarantee by June 1 that buses next school year be equipped with restraint systems. She also fears that when AB-15 becomes law, peace officers won’t be compelled to enforce it.

In 1986, it became necessary by state law to wear a seatbelt while in a car. But not until last year were officers given authority to ticket drivers or passengers in violation. But the laws applied to all vehicles except public transportation. Many have asked, why not?

Opponents claim that seatbelts on buses could be harmful to small children. Belts might trap kids, they’ve said, in an overturned bus or one on its side. And some kids have used seatbelts as weapons. Safety belts on school buses aren’t cost efficient, opponents have also said. In terms of cost-benefit analysis, opponents have said that safety records vs. the expense of restraint-system-installation prove that the devices aren’t worth the added cost.

After many years, according to the National Coalition for School Bus Safety, arguments against seatbelts on school buses are finally beginning to fade and the reasons for having them are becoming stronger.

The American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, American College of Preventative Medicine, Physicians for Automotive Safety and the Center for Auto Safety have endorsed seatbelts on school buses.

"A large amount of parents are unaware of the dangers here," Bartsch said. They think because OPUSD hasn’t done anything about it, then it isn’t a problem, she said.

Bartsch is on pins and needles, she said, every time her kids ride in a bus (for fear of an accident). Some field trips travel, she said, 30 or more miles.

Bartsch and her husband have often driven their kids on field trips, she said, rather than allowing them to ride on buses.

School bus occupant fatalities in 2000, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, have nearly doubled from 1999 and injuries have increased by 1,000. Regarding cost efficiency, reports state that seatbelts are about $1.50 a child per year or less than a penny a day.

"The ideal solution for the school bus is the compartmentalization, (which provides protection for unbelted riders in a frontal crash) plus a good lap and shoulder belt," said president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Brian O’Neill. School bus safety seats called SafeGuard have been designed with lap and shoulder seatbelts, now available, and are becoming more popular.

Already more than 200 school districts across the nation, according to experts, have adopted some sort of safety belt/restraint system (mostly lap belts) and 80 to 100 percent of riders are using them, reports say.

"If and when we need to act," said OPUSD board president Jim Kalember, "we will act rapidly. But we haven’t heard anything definitive, yet … Some districts," he said, " … handle (this seatbelt issue) at the site, which is what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to let the site make those decisions. If the site council and the PTA and the PFC and all those folks want to require that the buses have seatbelts and that they only go on scheduled field trips when those kind of buses are available, that’s pretty much their decision."

"This is not the job of the site council," Bartsch said. "This isn’t the job of a principal. This is not their job. You’re asking a group of parents to go out and make decisions about hundreds of children’s safety."

While one group of parents, she said, doesn’t want to pay for seatbelts, another group feels strongly about getting seatbelts in buses. A larger group of parents, she said, is in between and doesn’t know the facts.

It’s up to OPUSD, Bartsch said, to research the facts on school bus safety, not the parents.

According to OPUSD Superintendent Marilyn Lippiatt, Oak Park has never had a school bus accident.

"I’ve never lost anyone in an accident," Bartsch said. But that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t wear seatbelts, she said.

In addition to requiring seatbelt installations on existing buses, AB-15 will demand that all school bus manufacturers on or after Jan. 1 install a combination pelvic and upper torso passenger restraint system for all seats on buses that would operate in California.

A problem, Bartsch said, is liability that bus companies fear. They don’t want seatbelts because they’re afraid that if a child doesn’t use one or takes it off and gets hurt, the bus company will be held liable, she said.

OPUSD doesn’t own its own buses, but contracts out for bus service, Kalember said.