They are built stronger and heavier every year (gas mileage is not a factor). The seats are made bigger with higher backs and wider seats. The foam padding is increased. There used to be metal poles to hang on to, like on old city buses . They used to be padded, now they have been removed. New designs make them unnecessary. Each year, new things are added and old things removed. Parts of the bus are redesigned for greater safety. Kids were getting caught in the space between the handrail and the wall; first there was a retrofit- - a part was attached to the rail to prevent things from sliding down too far. The new model buses have the rail mounted farther out to eleminate this problem.

I am fortunate in that I have been assigned a brand new bus this year of 1999-2000. It is big (84 passengers) and is as safe as they can make them. I do have seat belts in the first 3 seats. These are in case a special needs student rides the bus and has difficulty sitting upright in a seat without assistance. There are also two specially built seats in the front of the bus. They are extra deep to allow car seats to be built right into them; the car seats fold down and have all the straps installed right there. When they are not needed, they fold back up. (see next section) Another factor you must consider is that a school bus carries the children much higher off the road than a car. They are usually above most traffic on the roads.

If your child were to wear a seatbelt and the bus were to stop quickly (say one of those deer in the park runs in front of me), the child's upper body would be thrown forward against the back of the seat in front of them. Their head hits the seat, their shoulders continue to go forward and the neck is bent- hard, quickly. This is not good. You have at best a strained neck and shoulders and at worst a broken one. You don't want this. We used to have seat belts installed on all our buses years ago. We were going to have the first fleet in the state to be 100%. Then we started to see the results of wearing them and began removing them and not ordering any more.

(It really didn't work out anyway. Children usually would not wear them; the belts ended up on the floor, in the aisles and tripped up lots of kids. There were just a few instances where the buckle was used against another student. The little kids could not tighten them and would stand with a buckled belt hanging around their knees. As drivers, we were not responsible for the belts being used but tried to remind the children. Think about it--how long do you think it would take to buckle in 84 first graders and who would get them out of the seatbelt in an emergency? It's better to build the buses safer another way.)

The whole point of sitting properly in a seat is so the child could hit the back of the seat, with 4 inches of foam padding, with their whole body; much less traumatic. There is not a whole lot of space to travel which makes it good for safety and not so good for all the big bags and sports duffles and school projects the students have to hold on their laps but it's the best way we have. Remember the Ohio rules? to be seated with aisles and exits clear? This puts your child in the safest position on the bus; within a little compartment zone with padding. Think what might happen when a child is on their knees facing the seat behind them? What happens if I stop suddenly when someone stops unexpectedly in front of me? We are talking serious injury here-and I have had parents say to me that they don't think this situation is unsafe!

Please tell your children they must sit properly in their seat when on the bus.

Car Seats

I hope you can understand now why we don't use seatbelts in school buses. The only person on the bus that wears one is the driver--all they have in front of them is a steering wheel and the windshield.