According to GHSA, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have laws mandating the use of child safety seats in motor vehicles. A majority of states have laws requiring booster seat use for children when they outgrow forward-facing car seats. Several of these child restraint laws, though, explicitly exempt school and other types of buses. As of April 2010, California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York have laws mandating seat belts on school buses.
Two of the nation's largest states, New York and California, have school bus seat belt laws in place. In New York, all school buses produced after July 1, 1987, must be equipped with seat belts. The New York law does not mandate seat belt use; it leaves that decision up to local school districts. New York does require child restraint devices for kids under the age of 4 on school buses. The California law simply requires most school buses to have shoulder and lap belt restraint systems, yet it does not mandate use.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advocates for school bus safety belt and child restraint use. AAP argues that children behave better and are less likely to distract the driver in school districts with seat belt policies. In a report by ABC News, proponents point to oft-cited National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data showing that lap/shoulder belt use reduces the risk of injury in traffic crashes by 45 percent. That number, though, applies to front seat occupants of cars. ABC News notes that the Department of Transportation already requires lap/shoulder belts for kids riding on school buses under 10,000 pounds, less than 20 percent of the nation's fleet.
According to the ABC News report, the cost of equipping school buses with seat belts runs between $7,000 and $11,000 per bus. Opponents of school bus seat belt laws point to cost as one reason not to enact regulations. Liability is another concern. Drivers worry that the responsibility of making sure all kids wear a seat belt is too much. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) contends that school buses are a relatively safe mode of transport. NTSB estimates that school buses carry 23.5 million children each day, yet only seven die each year. NTSB claims "compartmentalization" makes school buses safe. Strong, high-backed, well-padded seats, located close to one another, offer excellent protection in front- and rear-crash scenarios, notes NTSB.
NHTSA tells ABC News that all school buses produced after October 2011 must have 24-inch high seat backs, 4 inches higher than the previous standard. This, NHTSA believes, will make school buses even safer for kids. When you take drivers, adult passengers and pedestrians into account, along with youth passengers, just 26 deaths occur yearly, on average, as the result of school bus accidents.
