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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20170&cosponId=21840
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House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 6, 2017 10:42 AM
From: Representative W. Curtis Thomas
To: All House members
Subject: Legislation requiring seat belts on school buses
 
Pennsylvania’s children are its future and education is a key in unlocking each child’s potential. A vital part of ensuring educational opportunity for all is student safety. In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation that would make school transportation safer, by requiring Pennsylvania public school buses to be equipped with retractable seat belts.

My proposal would amend Title 75 (Vehicle Code) to make it mandatory that all public school buses that transport passengers 12 years of age or younger be equipped or fitted with retractable seat belts. Buses not appropriately equipped would not be permitted to carry these younger passengers and passengers would be required to use the seat belt while the bus is in motion.

Seat belts have been required in passenger cars since 1968 and there is no question that seat belts play a vital role in keeping occupants safe in those vehicles. Under federal law, states and school districts are not prohibited from purchasing and requiring school buses to be equipped with seat belts and are free to pass even stricter regulations. Under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 222, as of September 2009, three-point restraint systems are required on small school buses (10,000 pounds or less).

In November of 2015, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration revisited its earlier decision questioning the efficacy of seat belts on school buses and now publicly acknowledges that not only do seat belts save lives, but that NHTSA’s policy should be that every school bus should have a three-point seat belt. While the federal government works through the regulatory process, Pennsylvania can join other states in taking a lead on the issue.

As of this year, six states – California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas – have seat belt laws. In California and Florida, the law stipulates that transportation providers first install and use lap-shoulder belts on elementary school routes. Other states, including Texas, also require student training on the use of these systems.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that on an annual basis approximately 450,000 public school buses travel about 4.3 billion miles, transporting 23.5 million children to and from school and school-related activities. School buses keep an annual estimated 17.3 million cars off roads surrounding schools each morning and save billions of gallons of fuel.

While there is an ongoing debate over the use of seat belts on school buses with the currently held standard of compartmentalization, the reality is that no real-world crash data comparing seat belt use versus compartmentalization exist. We do know that compartmentalization does not provide protection during side impacts or in rollover collisions.

When parents place their children on a school bus there is an expectation that their transportation to and from school will be safe. While there is a cost involved with fitting or retrofitting seat belts on Pennsylvania’s schools buses, the safety of our children should far outweigh this cost. My proposed legislation would begin phasing-in the installation of seat belts on school buses. And it will ensure that our school bus safety systems are consistent with both current technology and the overall message for children and families on utilizing car safety seats and seat belts in all vehicles.

I hope you will join with me in co-sponsoring this legislation.

(Formerly HB1738 of 2015-16 session)



Introduced as HB533