From: kgatling@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Keith E Gatling)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Seatbelts in buses(ses?) ???
Date: 29 Aug 92 23:49:48 GMT
Organization: Manlius Pebble Hill School; Dewitt, NY

Okay, I am now donning my asbestos underwear in anticipation of intense heat
from a number of readers.  Helmet and face mask on.  Rubber boots on.  Ready
to proceed.

While I can understand the concern many of you have for your children that
leads you to want to push for seatbelts on buses, this crosses through an
issue that is very important to me...that of defining acceptible risks.

I get just a wee bit crazy whenever I hear of someone or some group trying
to make life absolutely perfect and safe, because it's never going to be
that way.  At best we can delude ourselves into thinking we have, and then
when something happens despite our best precautions, we'll beat ourselves
over the head for not considering the one in ten million possibility that
the freak accident that did occur could have.

Seatbelts in buses are one of those things to me.  I figure that in a
contest between a bus (either school or general transit) and our Chevy
Spectrum, the bus would come out the clear winner.  I come to this
conclusion from inadvertantly entering a contest with a Buick Electra 225 in
which the 225 got three scratches and we became a GEO Metro.  The bus and
the passengers on it would probably never even notice that it was hit
(notice, those of you whose fingers are on the pilot light, that I said
"probably").

And after we put seatbelts on buses, why not put them on trains?  Let's make
everyone perfectly safe?

There is the argument that it all comes down to money, and that the schools
don't want to spend it on seatbelts.  Well maybe that is the case, but maybe
that decision was based on a study of the risks, and it was determined that
the risk was much less than that of not having seatbelts in a car, or for
that matter of some less thought of events.

There's a dairy store near us that Cheryl and I go to on a regular basis.
It's also one where a year or two ago an interacial couple was assaulted by
a bunch of cretins.  Yesterday we mentioned to my mother-in-law an incident
that had happened while we were there a few nights ago, and then mentioned
that this was the dairy store where the other (oh yeah, by the way, we're an
interracial couple) had been assualted a while back.  Her reaction was, "And
you go to that store?!?"  I figure 10,000 people go to that store and get
milk without incident.  We should avoid that store because *one* couple was
hassled by *one* group of idiots *one* night a few years ago?  To me, that's
totally unrealistic.  The idea that if there is *any* risk whatsoever, I
should change my habits is totally unreasonable.

Before you get on the case of the schools for putting money before the
safety of your kids, think of how many "acceptable risks" you take with
them.  What are the chances of them being kidnapped when you send them to
the store, of them getting hit by a car when they're riding their bikes, of
being caught in a fire when spending the night at a friend's house?  You
take risks with your kids all the time, and on an actuarial basis many of
them just might have a higher probability of happening than a school bus
accident that would need seatbelts.

Please, let's try to be more rational, and a little less emotional, while
discussing this.

Okay...let the flames begin!

--
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* Keith E Gatling                                  kgatling@mailbox.syr.edu *
*          Opinions?  I've got plenty of them.  Just ask my wife!           *
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Newsgroups: misc.kids