As a number of STN subscribers are aware, I recently posted a discussion topic about safe seating on several of our social media sites, including STNSOCiAL and STN’s Linkedin group. I asked for your opinions about seating three high school students on a 39-inch seat.
The responses demonstrated your passion about this topic. You offered a lot of information. You offered a lot of reason for concern.
The responses also suggested to me that you feel “done to” on behalf of your students. You are desperately worried about student safety on the bus in today’s world – a world of big kids who bring “stuff” on board with them and fill up a seat quite easily. A couple of you referred to the NHTSA recommendation that all passengers be seated entirely within the confines of the school bus seats while the bus is in motion. Others of you implied how important that is to safety without tying your beliefs and concerns to federal pronouncements or manufacturer’s regulations.
In the end, though, isn’t safety consultant Dick Fischer, former school district transportation director and the father of “School Bus Safety Week,” absolutely right when he says “School transportation providers generally determine the number of persons that they can safely fit into a school bus seat?” And, isn’t is also true that school district transportation professionals are constrained too often in that determination by pronouncements about money from school board members, and that school bus company officials may themselves be driven by the cost factors that influence success in bidding wars.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that you need to gather all your good data and anecdotal evidence about why some kids can only ride two-to-a-seat, put that information together with recommendations from the 2010 NCST manual and NHTSA, get convincing language from your school attorney about the role of “industry standards” in the event of litigation, and make presentations to the powers that be within your entity and beyond – your customers, state government folks, federal lawmakers and the like.
Begin a campaign – start a discussion. Your responses to my question are a beginning. Now you need to pose the question and provide the answers to policy makers whose support you need to make the determinations you must be allowed to make about real seating capacity.
Peggy Burns is the former in-house counsel for Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Thornton, Colo., and currently owns and operates Education Compliance Group, Inc., a legal consultancy specializing in education and transportation issues. She is also a frequent speaker at national and state conferences and is the editor of the publication Legal Routes that covers pupil transportation law and compliance.
