School Bus Safety
by Stephen Hauck
CBS 42 News
2007-11-19 20:00:00.0
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One year ago on Tuesday, Alabama experienced a horrific school bus accident none of us will ever forget. Four students were killed when a bus plummeted from a highway overpass, crashing to the ground below.
So, what's been done in the past year to better protect our children in school bus crashes?
They are terrible images burned into our minds; the aftermath of a Huntsville school bus careening off a highway and plummeting to the ground below.
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"Governor Riley was deeply touched by that as was I, and everyone else in this state, and he immediately started talking to me about what we can do," said Alabama Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton.
That discussion led to the creation of the governor's task force on school bus seat belts, which involved months of investigation and hearings to ask national experts their thoughts on the subject.
"One thing we learned more than anything else, school buses are extremely safe in America. It's the single safest form of transportation in our country," said Morton.
However, most parents of children who ride the school bus believe they can be even safer.
"If it's a state law for us driving on roads, I think it should be a state law for our school buses, especially protecting our children," said parent Brad Handley.
"The school bus driver told my daughter that if there was an accident, she would have had a hard time getting all the children out. But I believe if there's some sort of system with volunteers on the bus, other parents, that it could make it a lot safer," said parent Angie Jones.
But, Dr. Morton says their study proved there is so much more to it than meets the eye, with questions like “are seat belts on buses safe,” and “should it be a lap belt or shoulder belt, or both?”
"All of our expert witnesses say that if you put in a lap belt, that it will do more harm than good, so it has to be a shoulder-lap harness," said Morton.
But there’s one big question. How much will it cost?
"In Alabama, with 7,000 school buses, and the cost of $10,000 per bus, to add seat belts we're talking about a $70 million expenditure," said Morton.
And something most people don't even think about is would students even use them?
"Can we have proper documentation to whether or not students use the belts before we make a recommendation to the legislature that Alabama invest $70 million in seat belts that may or may not be used?”
The state department of education hopes to get those answers in a three-year pilot study in which 12 buses will be equipped with lap-shoulder harnesses, along with two cameras to document usage, with some of the buses having aides aboard to make sure students put the belts on.
Dr. Morton says the findings will help determine if Alabama joins four other states that have already implemented school bus seat belt policies.
School buses travel 58 million miles a year in Alabama, with only two deaths in the decade leading up to last November's crash in Huntsville. But the investigation is on to see if safety can still be improved.
"It's the safest form of transportation in mass numbers. However, we want to make it the safest it can be," said Morton.
The University of Alabama was recently awarded the research grant to perform this three-year study after every university in the state was given the opportunity to do the research.
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