The Omaha World-Herald reports that state Sen. Robert Hilkemann plans to reintroduce legislation next year that would require school districts to purchase new school buses equipped with lap-shoulder seat belts.
An article Monday recounted a fatal school bus crash in Seward nearly one month after 9/11 that killed three students and the bus driver and also injured 27 others. The bus fell 50 feet from a highway bridge into a shallow, muddy creek. One of the parents of the deceased students says three-point seat belts could have saved her son’s life.
Nebraska is one of 44 states nationwide that have yet to enact a law requiring school bus seat belts, despite calls to do so last fall by NHTSA and, just last week, the National Safety Council.
The World-Herald reports that current Nebraska law requires seat belts for 14-passenger minibuses used by many districts to transport preschool students or children with disabilities.
Hilkemann’s bill would require seat belts on buses as they are replaced rather than retrofitting standard buses already in a school’s fleet.
