Here is a press release sent out by our Law Firm:
ALEXANDRIA, LA – October 17, 2008 – Within the last four weeks, school bus crashes have
made local headlines from New Orleans to Shreveport:
- In Alexandria, a student was seriously injured when she was run over by a bus with
non-functioning back-up lights.
- In Vidalia, 45 students were involved in a bus crash with a garbage truck that seriously
wounded two students and the driver
- In Lafayette, six children were taken to the hospital after a car ran a stop sign and hit the
side of their bus.
- In Monroe, two dozen students were injured when their bus collided with another vehicle.
- In Shreveport, two children were taken to the hospital after their bus ran off the road and
crashed into a ditch.
- In Dutchtown, 15 students were taken by ambulance after a chain-reaction crash.
- In West St. John, a student was narrowly able to avoid a crash by grabbing the wheel
after his driver passed out.
With all that in mind, the state prepares for National School Bus Safety Week October 20-24. Let’s hope that week is a bit safer than the past few.
In all technical definitions, school buses are some of the safest vehicles on the road, but safe doesn’t mean risk-free. According to the National Highway Safety Administration, since 1996 1,536 people have died in school transportation-related crashes, and an average of 6 child passengers die each year. (DOT HS 810 813, School Transportation-Related Crashes).
“We’ve handled dozens of cases involving school bus injures. It’s just not the type of case you ever want to see. Most of the time, it is young, young children who’ve been seriously injured who must deal with the physical scars and mental trauma for the rest of their lives. Just tragic,” said a Neblett, Beard & Arsenault lawyer.
Nearly forty years ago, engineers at UCLA performed a series of school bus crash tests which identified the main causes of injury during a collision. In order to keep kids safer, the engineers explored the idea of “compartmentalization,” where the child occupants are seated between high-back, well-padded and well-anchored seats capable of absorbing crash forces with large aisle side panels to contain riders. A lap belt was recommended to provide substantial additional protection.
Ten years later, in response to a Congressional mandate, NHTSA adopted some of the suggestions in Federal Motor Vehicle Standard 222. However, seat belts and some other provisions were left out, potentially compromising the compartmentalization concept.
Because of the relative safety of school buses, costs to upgrade and other factors, NHTSA do not feel that seatbelts are necessary. They say that adding seatbelts would limit the number of children per bus, and would cost money to add. They placed our children’s safety on a cost/benefit scale. But how many deaths and injuries could have been prevented with seatbelts?
That was the question after a horrific 2006 bus crash took the lives of 4 Alabama high school students. Because of that tragedy, the government announced on October 15th, 2008 that beginning in 2011, smaller school buses will now be required to have harness-style safety belts and larger buses will be required to have higher seat backs in order to keep larger students from flying over seats.
But more steps need to be taken. A children’s bus safety advocacy group, the West Brook Bus Crash Families, testified that adding seat belts to buses could save as many as 5-8 lives and prevent 3000-5000 injuries. The NHSTA dismissed those figures, but admitted in their own 2002 School Bus Safety Study report that adding seat belts would save about 2 lives and prevent 1,900 injuries per year. This prevention of harm was still not enough to convince them that a national mandate was necessary, due to costs and the potential of restricting the number of passengers per bus.
The safety and well-being of our children should not be assigned a dollar amount. However, advocates for school bus safety urged the NHTSA to calculate the reductions in personal and societal costs due to lap/shoulder belts in terms of medical, insurance and liability expense, physical disability and trauma, emotional trauma, and lost education days. These reductions could greatly offset the costs of adding seat belts.
One of the most vocal opponents of school bus seat belts was National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT), an industry organization that represents bus manufactures and aftermarket service and product suppliers. They claim that not enough is known about school bus seat belts to warrant a federal requirement. We do know; however, that a 1999 National Transportation Safety Board Study, researched six crashes where children were thrown from their compartments. If the vehicles had been equipped with safety belts, there is a good chance that the children would have been held in place.
“When it comes to our children’s safety, cost should not be an issue.” He added. “During school bus safety week, we need to ask ourselves, ‘Are we doing enough?”
