Last year, the National Parent-Teacher Association for the first time adopted a resolution calling for all new school buses to have lap belts. The American Medical Association, Physicians for Automotive Safety, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and other medical groups also endorse seat belts. Advocates of seat belts on buses say that belts provide improved crash protection and are especially beneficial in side impacts and roll-over accidents. They also say seat belts will improve passenger behavior, drivers will be less distracted, and children's use of belts in school buses will reinforce their use of seat belts in cars. But private contractors, who operate a third of the nation's roughly 450,000 school buses, and many school officials have fought the installation of lap belts on school buses for nearly 30 years.
School buses are already the safest mode of travel.
Most school bus-related deaths and injuries to children do not result from crashes. More children are hurt outside a bus than in one. Belts actually decrease crash protection because jackknifing of students' bodies over the belts could slam their heads into the back of the seats in front of them. Evacuation of crash victims from a bus during a fire could be hampered if occupants are belted. Installing seat belts does not guarantee students will use them.