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Opinion

School bus seat belts worth the price

Dawn Rorie
Opinion Columnist

Each year, 17,000 children are hospitalized because of school bus-related accidents. Last week's fatal school bus accident in Alabama was another sobering reminder we need to do more to make buses safer for children.

A bus was carrying students to Lee High School in Huntsville, Ala., on Nov. 20 when it plunged over a guardrail on an Interstate 565 overpass and fell nearly 30 feet before smashing into the ground. 

The students "were just tossed around inside the school bus," a police spokesman told CNN. Four of the 40 students onboard were killed, and more than half were taken by ambulance to the hospital. The bus was not equipped with seat belts or air bags.

This month's fatal crash comes on the heels of a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics advocating the installation of lap-shoulder belts on all new school buses. Such belts, said Jennifer McGeehan, the lead author of the study, "could not only prevent injuries related to crashes," but could also keep children safe and in their seats during routine turning and braking maneuvers. 

Given such reports, one wonders why school districts drag their heels on the installation of seat belts on all of their buses. The answer is as simple as it is outlandish: it would cost too much.

"It's an expensive proposition to outfit school buses with lap-shoulder belts, not just because of the cost of the equipment but because it also reduces seating capacity," Robin Leeds of the National School Transportation Association told reporters. 

Many districts fear that spending more on buses will mean there is less money used for education and supplies for the classroom.

For the families of the students who never make it to the classroom, however, the decision is an easy one. On Friday, a funeral was held for 17-year-old Nicole Ford -- one of the four students killed in the Alabama crash. She was a single mother of a 4-year-old son and had refused to drop out of school. She was pursuing an education in order to provide him with a better life.

It seems that while the debate rages on in boardrooms about who will have to cover the costs of seat belts on school buses, students like Nicole Ford -- and all of our children -- are paying the ultimate price.

Rorie, an English senior, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.