The school bus that overturned Tuesday morning, killing a student and injuring more than 20, passed an inspection in June and was considered safe.
But those who believe that buses, like cars, should have required safety belts, say that the Northwestern Local Schools bus that carried 52 children on a 2-lane Clark County road was inherently unsafe.
“The number of injured and traumatized, and the fatality, I don’t think would have occurred,” said Rudy Breglia, founder of School Bus Safety Alliance, a Cleveland-area based advocacy group. “You have 5-to-6 kids die like clockwork every year and another 17,000 injured. They bounce around like ping-pong balls.”
According to a study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 218 school-age children who died in school-transportation-related crashes between 2011 and 2020. Of those fatalities, 44 were occupants of school transportation vehicles, such as school buses. The rest were kids in other vehicles, kids walking and kids riding bicycles.
Monday’s crash occurred just before school was to begin when an eastbound minivan went left of center the lane of the westbound bus, which then veered onto the shoulder but was unable to avoid contact with the minivan. The bus was forced off the road, into an embankment and overturned, landing on its top. One student, ejected from the bus, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Lt. Nathan Dennis, spokesman for the State Highway Patrol which is investigating. The driver of the minivan has been charged in the incident.
Sadly, said Breglia, it takes tragedy to motivate change.
“To move forward sometimes you need tragedy,” Breglia said, equating bus seat restraints to street lights at an intersection. “You have to have a body count and then it gets the attention of lawmakers.”
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigates transportation wrecks, in 2018 released safety recommendations based on its review of two 2016 school bus crashes.
For the first time, the NTSB recommended all new, large school buses be equipped with lap and shoulder belts Smaller buses weighing less than 10,000 pounds already are required to have safety belts. The board also suggests new buses have automatic emergency braking and electronic stability control.
In November, the federal agency again called for widespread usage of seat belts. A bill was introduced in 2018 to add seat belt requirements for school buses, but it did not go anywhere beyond an initial hearing.
Read More:NTSB Reiterates call for lap and shoulder restraints
In Ohio, the Ohio Department of Education School Bus Inspection Manual notes that seatbelts are an “approved option,” said Lt. Dennis. “The decision is up to the individual school district on whether they do so.”
Ohio has three known school districts that have purchased new buses with 3-point restraints: Avon Lake City Schools in Lorain County and Beechwood and Hudson city school districts in Cuyahoga County, Breglia said.
Some districts say opposition stems from bus drivers dealing with legal liability and workload issues.
And cost, which can add as much as 10% to a new bus, may not be worth it for an unlikely severe bus crash.
Large school buses spread the impact of a crash differently than a typical car, according to the NTSB. And cushioning of high-back seats protects passengers through “compartmentalization.”
Breglia said he won’t stop fighting for improvements, noting that the cost over the life of a bus is equivalent to about $5 per student per year.
“I’ve never really gotten a clear message on why they don’t want to do it,” he said.
@DeanNarciso
