Seat Belt Laws
By: Jackie Smith
Updated: October 15, 2010
According to the Department of Public Safety, about 1.4 million children around Texas ride the school bus each day. So when accidents happen, people naturally wonder about their childs safety on their way and way home from school.
You would think school buses that carry kids on a daily basis would all require seatbelts. But the truth is, they don't.
Seatbelts provide people with a sense of security when driving on the road.
And accidents like the one that happened in Reagan County two days ago, where a chemical truck crashed into a bus that was letting kids out, makes you wonder why they weren't there in the first place.
That click of a seatbelt can make any passenger feel safe.
But for most school buses in the Permian Basin, that security is not there.
So when a school bus accident happens and kids get hurt....
"It makes all of us...cringe...but our statitisics prove that our school buses are the safest mode of transportation on the road right now...seat belts could and would make them safer," said David Morris the Director of Transportation from Ector County School District.
It's true.
And last month a law went into effect requiring all new school buses in texas to have seat belts.
"3.8 million dollars to TEA to fund seatbelts on school buses and they also put down guidleines on whose eligible for that funding," said Morris.
Schools in West Texas, however, don't meet the guidelines because of our population size.
Frustrating as that might sound, Trooper John Barton belives that seatbelts aren't something the community should worry about.
"When you talk about school bus safety though we refer to it as an egg carton or compartmentalization, theres extra padding on the seats...so if its involved in that crash children in that little department are protected," said Trooper Barton of DPS.
Barton says the real problem is with kids coming off and on to the bus.
"The real hazard is during the loading and unloading of the students, as in this case they were unloading...seatbelts wouldnt have played a big factor," said Barton.
In fact, Barton says education is far more important than new equipment.
"We've had troopers on these buses and enforcement actions to where we obsereve people to make sure when these buses stop and have their lights activated that people are stopping."
