Cleveland, Ohio (WOIO) – A young child was killed in a bus crash in Clark County on Monday, the district’s first day of school.
The crash raised the question of whether or not seat belts should be required on Ohio’s school buses.
In Ohio, school buses are not required to have seat belts.
“All thoughts go out to the families that have been impacted. Let’s take this tragedy as horrible as it is, and use that as the push to look at whether there are other things that we can do to make our transportation and our buses safer,” said Gov. Mike Dewine.
“Statistically in Ohio and other states, this is a very, very safe form of transportation. For many years there’s been a lot of work done on regulations in regard to public safety and, safety of school buses. We have a lot of requirements in the state of Ohio by the highway patrol, lots of regulations in regards,” said Dewine.
The governor said he’s open to studying if having seat belts could make a difference.
“What I am going to do in working with the general assembly is put together a group to take a look at this. And just review it from every aspect, and see the things that we could be doing in Ohio that will make a safe form of transportation even safer,” said DeWine.
Giving parents the resurrance they need to ensure their child’s safety is being put first.
“It would be a real shame if parents interpreted, a horrible, horrible tragedy to mean they should drive their children to school. I would hope no one would make that decision saying my kids are going be a lot safer in my own personal vehicle, statistics show that’s not true,” said DeWine.
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