It certainly looks that way, as ABC’s Good Morning America reports NHTSA is re-examine the polarizing issue, indicating the industry’s Great Debate will renew.
NHTSA Administrator Mark RosekindNHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind, who was sworn in last month following his Senate confirmation, told ABC’s Paula Faris that the federal government is again interested in whether lap-shoulder seat belts should be on all school buses. In fact, reported Faris, the former National Transportation Safety Board member from 2010 through the end of last year is promising a full review.
“I’m the new guy, fresh eyes. Does that mean we might change things? We may. We’re going to look for every action we can take to make those kids safer,” Rosekind added during the segment that aired Friday morning.
His predecessor at NHTSA, David Strickland, presided over the implementation to an updated FMVSS 222, which requires three-point, lap-shoulder seat belts on all newly manufactured Type A school buses that weigh less than 10,000 pounds GVWR. But NHTSA stopped short of an across-the-board ruling as it only recommended the occupant restraint systems for larger school buses.
At the time, NHTSA cited that crash forces upon smaller buses more closely resemble those on passenger vehicles, plus the the cost of adding seat belts and the possibility that they could reduce capacity, thus forcing more students to ride to and from school in less safe vehicles.
StillY Still, NTSB has been an outspoken proponent of seat belts in all vehicles, including school buses. For the past few years, NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher Hart has made the case before the school bus industry at the National Association for Pupil Transportation Summit, citing investigations from fatal school bus crashes in Chesterfield, New Jersey and Port St. Lucie, Florida in 2012. These investigations prompted the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation to reiterate its previous position supporting school bus seat belts if funding is available, but those members don’t even agree 100 percent.
The GMA piece showed video from two simulated school bus crashes — one a head-on, 30 mph crash into a concrete barrier and the other a roll-over — conducted at IMMI’s Center for Advanced Product Evaluation. The company, which manufactures the line of SafeGuard school bus seats and seat belts, demonstrated similar results in August 2013 and that fall to the school bus industry, government officials and other interested parties that showed how unbelted student passengers can be violently thrown about the bus during and after an impact.
Faris said NHTSA estimates it would cost approximately $2.5 billion to make sure all students who ride the bus have access to seat belts. Student transporters in opposition of school bus seat belts not only flinch at the cost and potential loss in student riders but also at the potential challenges the occupant restraint systems may present during an emergency evacuation — arguments that seat belt manufacturers say are no longer an issue because of lower price points, new “flex” seating technology and the near universal usage of seat belts by children in their parents’ vehicles.
Stay tuned.
Read More: State Laws & Requirements for School Bus Seat Belts
Editor’s note — A previous version of this article mentioned a “reverse” of the NASDPTS position on school buses. In fact, its 2014 paper was consistent with a 2008 response made to NHTSA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update FMVSS 222. NASDPTS Executive Director Charlie Hood clarified that NASDPTS “recommended that NHTSA require lap/shoulder belts on all newly manufactured school buses with dedicated, commensurate funding to ensure that no students were displaced from school buses into other, less safe vehicles or modes of transportation.”
“As stated in the 2014 position paper, NASDPTS fully supports state and local decisions for the installation and use of lap/shoulder belts in school buses when it can be accomplished without displacing students from school bus transportation,” he told STN. “In our 2008 comments, we acknowledged and recognized the dissenting views within our organization expressed by a small number of our members. As with the other student transportation associations, our members are a diverse, dedicated group of professionals, who, naturally, will not always be in complete agreement on every issue. We welcome and encourage diversity of thought, hence the decision to acknowledge differing views.”
