Seatbelts on school buses

The Beattie Government has identified the safety of students travelling to and from school as one of the most important issues for both parents and communities.

In 2003, a trial of seatbelts on school buses was conducted in response to recommendations made by the independent School Transport Safety Task Force and the Interdepartmental Working Group.

The trial involved fitting ADR68/00 seats and seat belts to 12 school buses throughout Queensland operating on long steep and very steep bus routes - where standing passengers are currently not permitted. The buses involved in the trial were split into either a low, medium or high encouragement group in order to measure the effect of education on seat belt wearing rates and student behaviour in the buses.

The aim of this trial was to identify and develop solutions for a range of legal, behavioural and operational issues before further consideration for inclusion in the Queensland school bus fleet.

The evaluation of the trial, which ran for six months, was conducted by the independent transport research organisation ARRB Transport Research. The key aim of the evaluation was to establish seat belt usage rates and identify the impact of seat belts on student behaviour.

The School Transport Safety Interdepartmental Working Group has been reconvened to examine the results of the trial and further investigate issues such as legal responsibility and compliance. The taskforce will provide recommendations by April 2004.

Other initiatives implemented as a direct result of the School Transport Safety Task Force include:

§       Development of the School Environment Safety Guidelines to help local schools and communities to improve safety around schools;

§       Safe Communities Trial to assist school based community groups through facilitating, engaging and observing these groups as they considered transport safety issues in their local community;

§       Increased school transport safety public education to improve road safety for children travelling to and from school;

§       SchoolBUS (School Bus Upgrade Scheme), which provides $3 million each year to help school bus operators across Queensland progressively upgrade their fleets; and

§       Launch and implementation of the Managing Student Behaviour Training Package for school bus operators.