WESTFIELD, Ind. — In response to the Waltham, Mass., School Committee’s unanimous decision in May 2011 to equip their entire school bus fleet with lap and shoulder belts—the first district-wide move in Massachusetts history—IMMI today announced the completed installation of its SafeGuard® seating products on all Waltham buses.
For over two years, the Waltham4Seatbelts grassroots group, with the support of Waltham Fire Chief Richard Cardillo, worked to educate the Waltham School Committee on the benefits and expected costs of adding lap and shoulder belts to Waltham school buses.
After more than 800 Waltham residents signed a petition requesting the Waltham School Committee to add language to its Request for Bids school bus contract that included a requirement to equip buses with lap and shoulder belts, the committee unanimously voted to outfit its subsequent school bus fleet with lap and shoulder bets—adding just three percent to its transportation budget for the upgrade.
Illinois Central School Bus, who was eventually awarded the transportation contract and named the district’s new fleet provider, selected IMMI—an industry leader in the design, testing and manufacturing of advanced safety systems—to install SafeGuard seats on its Thomas Built school buses and train school personnel, students and drivers on the use and care of the new seats.
“We are very happy to see that all our hard work has resulted in Waltham offering the safest possible transportation for our children to get to and from school every day, and, especially, for the long highway travel typically associated with field trips and sporting and club travel,” said Rachel Learned, Waltham4Seatbelts founder. “It’s reassuring to the parents on our committee, as well as the hundreds of parents we formally represent, that our children will now climb onto buses equipped with lap and shoulder belts. We’re grateful to the school committee, the school superintendent, our fire chief and all those who saw the need for enhancing bus safety for all passengers.”
“We’re excited to be a part of this unprecedented move in the New England area to equip buses with lap and shoulder seating,” said Charlie Vits, IMMI’s market development manager of sales. “Because our SafeGuard seating provides both compartmentalization and lap-shoulder protection, we’re confident that we’ll be able to satisfy Waltham’s interest in safety for belted bus passengers.”
