If the law requires you to wear your seatbelt why havnt they but them on busses?

The almighty dollar

I’ve seen numerous reasons for this: 1) Other safety devices are in use (high-backed, padded seats – whoopie!) 2) It would add an enormous amount of time to the bus driver’s routes to wait until everyone was buckled in. 3) How would the bus driver enforce it? As soon as his back is turned, kids will unbuckle (I don’t think that’s true for most of today’s children, who have grown up wearing one every day). 4) In an incident that made it unsafe to remain on the bus (fire,etc) it would take far longer to get everyone off the bus, especially unconsious(sp?) people. Most of these arguments could be made for regular passenger vehicles, too…so why the difference? I think Judi’s got it right. In a MUCH shorter answer, too!

With all the recent press about school bus bullies I think it would be GREAT to force the kids to sit down and buckle up! 2 times breaking the buckle up rule and your parents have to figure out how to get you to school. We thought my son was ADHD (turns out he was bipolar, try giving Ritalin to a bipolar kid!) He had a lot of trouble on the bus. When I finally found out (no one told me, I witnessed a parent screaming at him at the bus stop) I rearranged my schedule and started driving him to school. Those morning talks were some of our best times together. I ramble….. Seat belts on school buses would have an array of benefits.

Acutally this is a question i got wrong on my drivers ed test, the only pepole in the car who have to wear the seatbelt are the driver, front seat paassenger and any one else in the car under the age of 15, or at least thats how it is in Texas

@aisyna The laws vary by state.

Here is what the pros say about bus design and seat belt use:

“Information from all types of school bus collisions demonstrates that the current school bus design provides a high level of protection to occupants and that seat belts may actually adversely affect the safety of children on school buses.

Instead of requiring seat belts, school buses are designed and constructed differently from passenger cars. School buses protect passengers through “compartmentalization”, a design that includes:

* Seats with high backs;
* Seats filled with energy-absorbing material;
* Seats placed close together to form compartments;
* Strong seat anchorages.

Studies have shown that adding seat belts to the current seating configuration of a school bus can increase the chance of head and neck injuries.”

My daughter was in a wreck on a school bus in Florida. She had a whiplash type of injury from it. When I asked why there were no seat belts required on buses, I was told that in the event of a fire or really bad accident it would take too long to get the kids out. Can you imagine trying to get 50 kids out of seat belt when the bus is on fire? The answer they gave made sense to me. They went on to say that because of this, seats were built more sturdy and protective.

@scamp Very good point.