Posted on 04/05/2008 7:15:20 PM PDT by Proud2BAmerican
Seat belts debated
The state has rejected them as too costly to place on school buses
By Alexandre Da Silva
adasilva@starbulletin.com
The crash of a public school bus carrying Kahuku High water polo players Thursday is renewing the debate of whether students should buckle up.
The Legislature will likely consider a resolution next week to urge the Board of Education to require seat belts in school buses, said state Rep. Marilyn Lee, vice chairwoman of the House Finance Committee.
Historically, calls to install the restraints have failed, here and nationally, largely because of the cost to retrofit school buses, which already have stricter safety standards than other vehicles.
School buses have tall, padded seats to protect students during impact, and their yellow color warns motorists to drive carefully, said Randy Moore, assistant superintendent for the Education Department, which opposed a seat belt bill this session.
He, however, acknowledged the value of seat belts if a bus were to roll over or overturn like the one that was taking 25 members of Kahuku High's girls water polo team to a scrimmage at Mid-Pacific Institute. The bus swerved to avoid a car on Kamehameha Highway and flipped onto its side in Waikane Stream, police said.
Twenty-six passengers were taken to hospitals, officials said, including two girls who were seriously injured. Kahuku High Principal Lisa DeLong said she believed all the girls were released that night.
The team will even play against Roosevelt High this morning at Brigham Young University, she said.
Every school day, more than 800 buses take some 40,000 public school children to class, according to Aaron Kimura, student transportation services branch director. All lack seat belts, except for a few smaller buses for special-needs students, he said.
It would cost the Education Department about $2 million to have companies add seat belts to their school buses, Moore said. But seat belts also might reduce capacity, leading to more buses on the road, and the department would need extra employees to make sure students are strapped, which could push costs up to $14 million, he noted.
"Even though people feel uncomfortable talking about the value of lives, we deal with it every day. It comes down to, 'You can reduce the risk at this cost. Is it worth it?'" he said. "(That) is ultimately a public policy issue."
House Resolution 62 was introduced after a seat belt bill that 18 lawmakers backed failed to advance after being opposed by the Hawaii transportation and school bus associations, and the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools.
Lee (D, Mililani-Mililani Mauka) wants at least a review of whether seat belts might have prevented some of the injuries the Kahuku students sustained.
"When you have a school bus accident, it makes you start thinking, 'Well, maybe it is necessary,'" she said.
Asked about the issue of seat belts in buses, DeLong said, "After yesterday I think that would be a good idea."
I had fun riding the bus home from junior high. We used to go over this nice bump under the F train, and jump when we hit it. I remember I fell on my knee one time, and this other kid hit his head when he jumped.
Fun times
Same here. We used to cheer on Frenchy (our black bus driver with gerry curl) to not slow down through a dip in the road. Sometimes he’d oblige, and we’d time a hop in our seat and se who could hit their head on the ceiling.
"If it saves the life of one child..."
It a mater of cost for them, but if you don’t buy a car-seat for some of the same kids to ride in your car, you get a fine...
What about from an enforcement perspective? There’s no way a bus driver can ensure that 50 or so kids on a bus are all buckled up.
Tell a highway patrolman that you have $100,000 to put into seat belts for school buses.
He’ll tell you about better ways to spend it.
Hypocrites!
Install the seatbelts. It's For The Children, for G**'s sake!
So the bus flipped on it’s side into water. High school girls I could see being able to undo seat belts in a panic.
Little kids wouldn’t be that adept.
Sounds like he went pretty fast.
Yes.
On more speed traps in safe areas so ticket income can be increased.
Yeah there is.
Use roller-coaster style restraint bars with sensors and quick releases.
That way, the kids can’t get creative and use the seat belts as flails, nooses, or garrottes.
They never seem to think the things they mandate for us are too costly.
Aloha, Hawaii, once you see the gas bill for your busing plan, you’ll forget all about the seatbelts....
We would save more lives by enforcing immigration laws and deporting illegal immigrants swiftly. There would be three children killed in a recent school bus accident in Minnesota alive today if the illegal immigrant who ran a stop sign and plowed into their bus had been deported when she was arrested for driving without a license a year before the accident.
The bus involved in the crash was an old school bus that had been purchased by First Assembly of God, a church in Radcliff, and it only had two exits, the front door and the rear emergency door. The head-on collision with a drunk driver's pickup ruptured the bus's fuel tanks, which immediately exploded in flames, blocking the front door, leaving only the rear door as an escape. Most of the fatalities occurred when children could not find the exit in time and were overwhelmed by the smoke and fumes.
Sadly, the two worst bus crashes in US history have both occurred in Kentucky; the Carrollton Bush Crash and the Big Sandy Bus Accident, in which a school bus collided with a wrecker and rolled into the Big Sandy River, drowning the bus driver and twenty-six students.
Horrible.
Hadn’t seen that news story yet, but I’m out of the loop so far today. I’ll check wires; in case I can’t find it, can you give me a link?
They are already mandatory in NJ.
I remember growing up - they weren’t. What FUN we had!!!
“If it saves the life of one child...”
Hmmmm banning abortion could save the life of one baby ... .
In NJ we hav emandatory seatbelts ONLY because they make YOU pay for them via property taxes. The more money liberals can take FROM you, the HAPPIER they are.
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