Accident raises seat belt question

At a bus driver's meeting early Tuesday morning in Huntley Project, the long-debated question of whether or not school buses should have seat belts was raised again - this time in response to a tragic accident Monday that killed 7-year-old Huntley Project Elementary student Sarah Fark.

"It's always a possibility," said Dave Mahon, superintendent of Huntley Project School District, but for now, buses in Huntley Project and districts across Montana are not required to have seat belts.

School buses are the safest form of transportation, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. School bus fatalities are nearly six times lower than the rate for other passenger vehicles, and fewer than 10 school bus passengers die in accidents in an average year.

But officials still wonder if seat belts would further reduce that number.

After years of studying the issue, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determined that the benefits of seat belts use on buses was minimal, but earlier this year it encouraged states to consider adding seat belts to buses.

The trouble is, seat belts cannot easily be installed on older buses and doing so is expensive.

Buses would have to be extensively modified with new seats and reinforced flooring and brackets to hold them in place before seat belts could be installed, said Ron Messman, the contract manager at First Student, the company that provides bus services to Billings School District 2 and several other districts in the area.

Huntley Project runs its own bus service with 11 routes a day plus two buses that shuttle students in the after-school program. It was on one of the after-school program trips that the girl was killed. She was ejected from the bus, and three other passengers suffered only minor bumps and bruises.

Messman said each new seat would cost about $350, and lap belts would cost another $50 apiece. Shoulder harness belts would cost $120. But probably what's more expensive would be the loss in seating capacity.

Most buses in First Student's fleet have 24 seats that accommodate three students apiece. With seat belts, they would only be able to hold two, and more buses would have to be added to haul the same number of children.

"I hate having money be the sole reason we're not doing it, because it belittles the value of our children," Messmer said.

Because buses don't have seat belts doesn't mean they aren't designed for safety, Messman said.

Bus seats are padded, andthey bend when a child is thrown forward. The seats are taller than standard vehicle seats and offer more protection, and as long as students stay in their seats, they will be protected in an accident, Messman said.

Most accidents involving school buses are rear-end collisions or buses hitting fixed objects, said Sondra Baker, the transportation director at SD2. Side collisions like the one involving the Huntley Project bus are rare, and accidents that result in a fatality are even rarer.

"Even if there isn't the statistics to support it, (seat belts) are still a good idea," Baker said.