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Seat Belts On School Buses

mud said:
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Mandatory use of seat belts is the law in 50 states. But states or the feds allow young school age children to ride a bus with no seat belts. And parents teach their kids to buckle up before they drive the family car, but allow them to go to school with no seat belts in a school bus? They teach in driver's ed classes that seat belts have to be buckled before driving. Mandatory use of seat belts in driver's ed. But the schools team bus takes our kids to an sporting event with NO seat belts. A true teaching moment. von.
 
All I ever hear is,what if the bus ended up in water? Don’t remember the last bus accident I read about hitting water. Blame your state representatives in your home state. With more and more distracted driving, at high speed, I think it’s time to do something about this.
 
BIG R GUY said:
All I ever hear is,what if the bus ended up in water? Don’t remember the last bus accident I read about hitting water. Blame your state representatives in your home state. With more and more distracted driving, at high speed, I think it’s time to do something about this.
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If you recall when seat belts were put in our trucks, every driver you knew had a friend or acquaintance who drowned because he couldn't loosen his seat belt.
I don't think anyone ever showed a documented case.
 
seabreeze said:
If you recall when seat belts were put in our trucks, every driver you knew had a friend or acquaintance who drowned because he couldn't loosen his seat belt.
I don't think anyone ever showed a documented case.
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How do you make a school bus full of kids,from kindergarten to high school wear a seat belt? And then when something happens what are you gonna do,hang the driver out to dry? Statistics show that school buses are one of the safest vehicles on the road.
 
ragpicker said:
How do you make a school bus full of kids,from kindergarten to high school wear a seat belt? And then when something happens what are you gonna do,hang the driver out to dry? Statistics show that school buses are one of the safest vehicles on the road.
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You teach them, if they don't follow rules, the're put off the bus.
You think they should be exempt?
 
Ive been in two school bus wrecks before. The first was in a 60's era blue bird with metal and steel bars over the low backed bench seating. I was in the front one on the right. The physics tossed me down the stairwell and out onto the street next to the damn thing under the rear axle. That was pretty close. Remember the situation as if it happened a few minutes ago.

The next wreck was a head on by a vehicle failing to take a curve too fast. His monte carlo slammed into our S Model International new body bus with the then special high backed seats designed to keep bodies in. My body slammed into that seat back in front of me and that was the end of that problem without injury. No belts then. Car was doing about 40 in a slide and we were slowing past 20 on impact. Bus lost the forward steer but steel beam bumper soaked the hit directly to the frame with just a bend where the car hit offside. That driver had his body punched onto the steering column. He died. No belts on his end.

One incident cost a kid his future. Driver was egged to take the thing over a intersection hump where the rear overhang frame behind the drive axle will flip all of us out of the seats for some air time. Well driver was a touch too fast that day by a couple mph and one kid thumped into the roof. It destroyed his productive future and required skilled care 24/7 for life. We did not see that kid again nor the driver.

The next driver we got was pretty ... good. For a 80 year old fiesty battleaxe. We were steaming full speed towards a intersection of a major city route 4 lane vs 4 lane lights in our favor. She horsed that thing around a smashup of three cars vs each other at 60+ from the cross route and did what she needed to do on the binders which was airbraking at that time. Tossed us around like a salad mixer. But no problems with us or her. No seat belts either. She did good with that thing in the time the wreck developed in front of us at about 50 and just enough room to do something about it in the rain of all things.

As a side note if I was 40 ton rolling and loaded, I would have smashed all three stewing all concerned in the pile. There was no way with the situation as it evolved. If I was a big rig, which makes me more praising of what our battleaxe did with a lumbering little two axle thing without much weight.

As long you don't flip a bus or roll it your kids have a fighting chance.

With that said I rode my last greyhound 35 years ago. Thats enough of that. Those buses are death traps as far as I am concerned.

We did have one bus long ago in late grade school with belts. In those days its pretty violent as we sorted out the bullies. A short pocket blade took care of the webbing and the metal buckles were good weapons for what they were, not only packing a wallop but also cutting which usually ends the bully fast enough.

That was the quick end of the belt situation that year after two of those fights. Driver was not happy at all. (Who wouldnt be?) it was a simpler time back then.
 
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1984Sideways said:
Ive been in two school bus wrecks before. The first was in a 60's era blue bird with metal and steel bars over the low backed bench seating. I was in the front one on the right. The physics tossed me down the stairwell and out onto the street next to the damn thing under the rear axle. That was pretty close. Remember the situation as if it happened a few minutes ago.

The next wreck was a head on by a vehicle failing to take a curve too fast. His monte carlo slammed into our S Model International new body bus with the then special high backed seats designed to keep bodies in. My body slammed into that seat back in front of me and that was the end of that problem without injury. No belts then. Car was doing about 40 in a slide and we were slowing past 20 on impact. Bus lost the forward steer but steel beam bumper soaked the hit directly to the frame with just a bend where the car hit offside. That driver had his body punched onto the steering column. He died. No belts on his end.

One incident cost a kid his future. Driver was egged to take the thing over a intersection hump where the rear overhang frame behind the drive axle will flip all of us out of the seats for some air time. Well driver was a touch too fast that day by a couple mph and one kid thumped into the roof. It destroyed his productive future and required skilled care 24/7 for life. We did not see that kid again nor the driver.

The next driver we got was pretty ... good. For a 80 year old fiesty battleaxe. We were steaming full speed towards a intersection of a major city route 4 lane vs 4 lane lights in our favor. She horsed that thing around a smashup of three cars vs each other at 60+ from the cross route and did what she needed to do on the binders which was airbraking at that time. Tossed us around like a salad mixer. But no problems with us or her. No seat belts either. She did good with that thing in the time the wreck developed in front of us at about 50 and just enough room to do something about it in the rain of all things.

As a side note if I was 40 ton rolling and loaded, I would have smashed all three stewing all concerned in the pile. There was no way with the situation as it evolved. If I was a big rig, which makes me more praising of what our battleaxe did with a lumbering little two axle thing without much weight.

As long you don't flip a bus or roll it your kids have a fighting chance.

With that said I rode my last greyhound 35 years ago. Thats enough of that. Those buses are death traps as far as I am concerned.

We did have one bus long ago in late grade school with belts. In those days its pretty violent as we sorted out the bullies. A short pocket blade took care of the webbing and the metal buckles were good weapons for what they were, not only packing a wallop but also cutting which usually ends the bully fast enough.

That was the quick end of the belt situation that year after two of those fights. Driver was not happy at all. (Who wouldnt be?) it was a simpler time back then.
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You sound like a slow learner, think I'd be walking after the first incident!
 
1970, 7th grade. School roughly 4 miles west.
Rode IN a Yellow Bus a few times to and from school.
Of course NO SEAT BELTS ON ANY BUS yet NO ONE was "required" to wear seat-belts, at all, in ANY vehicle.
>>Remember, in the 40's, 50's, 60's, there were few Vehicles with NO Factory Seat-Belts.
Lap Belt ONLY when installed (example: our 64 El Camino had Factory Lap Belts)<<
_ _ _ _
The weirdness in one other transport venue: AIRPLANES! Seat Belts somehow Required for Take Off and Landing (as well random turbulence), go figure.
Not likely a plane is going to "run into a mountain or other stationary object" (yes there have been such accidents yet not pertinent to this post) and if so, a seat belt will help in no way.
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Regarding 1984sideways:
The FIRST (School, Snailways, other) Bus Accident, For I, would have been the LAST.
 
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I appreciated the input. We were all slow learners back in those days. If we learned anything at all.

Regarding the last and first, that was not something a 5 year old has any say in. The bus shows up you go.

And people wonder why I sometimes endure PTSD riding in a short bus he he.

Whats really good about commuting to school etc, when the weather and winds were favorable, we would rent a plane, buy some fuel and fly to and from school. No buses here and reduces a 1 hour plus wreck mobile trip to something of a 9 minute or so flight.
 
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