Proper use of seat belts will improve student behavior on the bus, reduce driver distraction, and may translate into accidents avoided. Significant injuries and fatalities have resulted. Children can be thrown about within the vehicle causing serious injuries or fatalities. Cost effectiveness of this expenditure elsewhere has not been demonstrated. There are no federal standards for lap belt installation in school buses.
Seat belts have no effect in the most common school bus crash scenarios.
Two-thirds of student fatalities occur as youngsters walk to or from the school bus stop while they are pedestrians, or because they are run over by their own school bus. Regarding the cost to install three-point safety belts, no authoritative source has calculated that cost. Seat belts may actually prevent rapid egress from a bus in the case of a bus fire or sinking in a river, lake or other large body of water. Installing seat belts in a school bus does not mean that students will use them. It is not possible for the bus driver to police the proper fastening and adjustment of seat belts.