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My heart is breaking here, we are trying to keep up with that Bus Crash in Huntsville where AT FIRST they were saying over 30 children were critical, and now are saying that 2 of them have died.

Buses do not have seat belts, wonder if that would have made a difference in this crash?

Like I said, my heart is breaking...for the children, the parents, and those families of the kids who died. Frowner
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We watched some of the news clips on the computer here at work, and yes, it flipped AND it was horrific!!!

But somehow or another, I still think it wouldn't have been quite as bad if the kids had on belts. I have never understood such stringent laws on cars and trucks belt law, but our MOST valued possessions, (our children) can ride buses without them... makes no sense to me, and if anyone else can offer something that DOES make sense to me, I would welcome it.

My thought and prayers go out to all the victims of this tragedy. Frowner
Good question and I looked it up and here are the reasons given:

They have designed school busses in a way that compartmentalizes the kids so if they are thrown it’s about into the back of the seat in front of them.

If they did have seat belts the driver wouldn't be able to ensure all the kids wore them and the kids would cut them out or choke each other with them.

On average 10 kids are killed each in school bus accidents and most of these are collisions where "seating position was in the direct line of impact" (side impacts) where a seat belt wouldn't have provided much help.

To put that into perspective 40 to 50 thousand people are killed in auto accidents per year and several times more kids are killed walking to school and boarding/exiting a school bus every year than are killed on a school bus.

It is possible having a seat belt would have helped the kids that went over the overpass but we can’t afford to equip every school bus in the country for such a remote possibility. It would cost $470 million dollars to put seat belts in school busses (1,500 per bus * 384,000,000 school busses) and that would ensure the kids wore them and didn’t cut them out. We would have to hire an extra employee for that AND what are you going to do when the buss runs off into water or catches of fire and the kids are buckled in?

http://www.googobits.com/articles/p0-362-why-dont-schoo...have-seat-belts.html
Some good points made here. Just a rhetorical question though; "What would it be like if we adressed problems before they result in disasters?" Like not waitng for the proverbial axe to fall before speaking out or questioning obvious deficiencies. What price can be placed on a child's life you ask? Seems to me that depends on if it's your kid or some one elses, doesn't it?
Going over an overpass, seatbelts would not have done a bit of good.

Skrool buses are designed to take front and rear impacts. Nothing unusual, or any cars fro that matter (unless NASCAR, they have a roll bar cage system), if it should land on the roof, would crush. This one appers to have landed front/headon and landed upright.

If it landed on its roof, much worse.

I suppose most of the injuries are broken necks, spinal compressions, etc. that are fatal...or possibly blunt-force trauma.

Seatbelts DO NOT save all lives. I know this, unfortuneatly, for a fact. My 16 year old brother was killed on 21 July 1991. He had his seat belt on, his friend did too (he survived, state troopers said he survived because he broke the seat, the friend of my brother is obese). The car ended up inverted, trunk crushed, etc. Speed and overcorrection on a county road late at night, with no markings on the road, are the probably culprits (as well as inexperience, he had his license exactly 3 months, his BD was 21 April 1975).

As a note, a year later, TD ran a "story" where all the fatal crashes in Laud County in 1991 no one wore a seat belt. Lets just say when I read that, I called the newsroom, and someone lost some butt in that phone call. Next day, TD retracted the story.
quote:
Originally posted by Quarrles:
Some good points made here. Just a rhetorical question though; "What would it be like if we adressed problems before they result in disasters?" Like not waitng for the proverbial axe to fall before speaking out or questioning obvious deficiencies. What price can be placed on a child's life you ask? Seems to me that depends on if it's your kid or some one elses, doesn't it?



So should we place nets under all the trees as well since kids climb trees and fall?
The seatbelts might not have saved them but then again they might have. Fact is we will never know.
We are required by law to wear them in a car,truck,semi but yet our most valuable cargo isn't required to have them worn or even supplied.
That doesn't make any sense to me at all.
When I was a bus aid in Pittsburgh the bus had seat belts and we did make sure each child wore them.
For the age group that were part of this accident, they are well aware of the legal requirements with seat belts. So them using them while on the bus shouldn't be that tough.
Regardless, My prayers go out to the family and friends of ALL involved in this crash.

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