Safety- and school buses !

What a strange lot we are !    We are constantly upgrading the law on keeping children safe when they travel in cars.   We legislate to specify the type and size of restraint they must have - based on age and size, and now there are laws to prevent people smoking when children also share a car.

At the same time, we condone stuffing kids into school buses - often with more than one to a seat - and send them into heavy traffic without any form of a seat belt.    Some people describe school buses as similar to " cattle trucks " - because the number of kids carried bears absolutely no relation to the number of passengers the vehicle is licensed to hold.   When all the seats are taken, the remainder are forced to stand for the journey.   In country areas, these buses are often travelling at a hundred kilometres per hour.

A review ordered by the previous state government dodges the issue.   It seems to concentrate more on the negative side of compulsory seat belts for every child carried.

It raises the argument that the rebellious nature of children means that even if seat belts were provided, few would use them.    There would also be a size problem if seat belts were on a " one size fits all " basis, because the present laws would require very small children to have a booster seat to be legal.

Then there is the cost factor.   If every child had to be seated and fitted with a safety belt this would limit the number carried on each bus - and more buses would be needed at a big jump in cost.   The present arrangement is straining state resources.  Any safety upgrade raises the question of where the money would come from ?

Fortunately school buses have an enviable safety record.  Crashes are rare, and we put more effort into the safety of kids going to and coming from school than we do on bus travel.    Speed limits around school are lowered at the times when kids are entering and leaving - and we are gradually installing flashing lights to remind drivers to slow down and obey the rules.

Statistics show that kids in school buses are seven times safer than those riding to school in cars, thirty-one times safer than those walking to school - and an amazing two hundred and twenty eight times safer than those cycling to school.

The chances are that this review report will end up gathering dust in some bureaucratic pigeon hole because there are only a few fanatics urging the installation of safety belts - and that will probably continue just so long as the school bus safety record enjoys it's present good luck.

Unfortunately, the only way we can reasonably expect to see seat seat belts in school buses will be the outcome of a horror road crash that delivers a lot of dead kids - and changes public attitudes that create the pressure for change.

Until that happens, cost will be the determining factor !