Out of personal curiosity, I asked Superintendent Michael Frechette (via email on 1/13) if there were plans to add seat belts to Middletown buses. Before I share his answers, here's some interesting background information first: when my oldest had his kindergarten orientation in August 2005, we rode a bus with seat belts on it. I was excited about that until the bus driver told me it was a Cromwell bus, not Middletown's. So I sent the Superintendent (it was Frechette) a note and asked him why Middletown didn't have seat belts on its buses. He called me up one afternoon and spent a good long time talking about seat belts on buses and what the current research demonstrated. His basic conclusion as I remember it was that school buses are fine without seat belts. I also have a specific memory of Frechette mentioning that the school district would have to pay for the addition of seat belts to Middletown buses, and that it would be an expensive undertaking.
Flash forward to the present, and here's what Dr. Frechette said when I asked him about seat belts:
The recent accident in Hartford is tragic. I am sure it will continue the debate on seat belts on buses.
I do not remember saying the reason we do not have seat belts is because we may have to pay for them.
Our buses do not have seat belts.
I will be following the debate very closely as I am sure many will as well.
When I asked again, specifically, if the School District would have to pay for seat belts (which makes no sense to me), his response was: "That would be negotiated with DATCCO."
Of course, should new legistlation from the State House mandate seat belts on school buses, the Superintendent will have to do more than just monitor the situation. Stay tuned while I ask DATCCO how much seat belts cost...
4 comments:
You cannot get the children to SIT DOWN, how in heck are you going to make them buckle up?
That driver should have lost his license when he was clocked at 80 mph the day before! This is only the second fatality in 50 years involving a school bus in CT. Let's not get all nanny state over this isolated event.
The danger with seat belts on schools buses is one of children getting trapped. Do you want a bus going into water and an incapacitated driver and thirty elementary svhool kids unable to get themselves out? If there is fire on the bus, is one driver going to unbuckle all the kids risking his/her life over and over again?
The tall seat fronts make buses safe, as long as drivers adhere to speed limits and safe driving practices. The only exception are for buses traveling on highways, as their speed is higher. National PTA has come out against seat belts on buses in the past for these reasons.
I'm not seen a middle ground in this debate.
How about limiting Interstate Highway travel to school busses equipped with seat belts?
I'm also in the camp that sees a large amount of wasted money equipping all busses with belts, due to the difficulty in getting the students to buckle up. Once the bus is moving, this would be yet one more distraction to the driver.
The only way to ensure the belts are used would be a "flight attendant" style crewmember, adding yet another huge expense.
Another fact that needs to be noted is that the major cost of a seat belt is not necessarily the belt, but the hard points where the belts attach. If the vehicle was not built to accept belts, there's an awful lot of expensive manual labor to add mounting points.
As a mother of a five-year old, I can attest to children being quite accustomed to being buckled in. The school bus is quite possibly the first time kids DON'T have to buckle up. Not a great lesson to learn.
I'll admit to not being knowledgeable about bus safety stats, however.
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