No federal law that exists mandating seat belts be installed in regular school buses. State and local authorities are allowed to install them if they wish, but with an estimated cost of around $1500 per bus to install seat belts, why would they? The law says it’s okay not to have them, so why fix what’s not broke?

Parents and other citizens are concerned. The National Parent Teacher Association has asked that seat belts be installed in every new school bus. Parents are not unreasonably worried. Every year over 41,000 lives are lost in automobile accidents. It is not irrational to assume that children would be better protected if buckled up on their way to school and home.

Seat belt advocates list several major reasons for requiring seat belts in school buses:

* Reduce the number of injuries and fatalities in collisions
* Reduce the number of non-collision injuries children sustain from sticking their arms and heads out of windows and falling out of their seats
* Improve behavior of children on buses by keeping children seated
* Reinforce the message to “Buckle Up”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires all new school buses to meet safety requirements above those of passenger cars. These include improved emergency exits, seating, fuel systems, and joint stability. The administration is responsible for establishing federal safety standards for all motor vehicles, and works with states on school bus safety programs. Nevertheless, the NHTSA does not currently require seat belts to be installed in school buses.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has concluded that seat belts would provide little, if any, added protection for children involved a school bus accident. In 1987, the NTSB concluded in a study that most fatal injuries caused by school bus collisions were due to seating positions in direct line of impact, and that seat belts would not have prevented most of these tragedies.

Because there is no compelling evidence that seat belts would provide added safety for school bus occupants, and because of the outstanding safety record of school buses, the NHTSA has concluded that there is insufficient evidence for requiring safety belts to be installed. Several additional factors determine the stance against mandating seat belts on school buses.

Some school buses here in the U.K have them but it isn't law to have them fitted.

They have to have them here in Ireland.

I don't know you tell me because I wonder the same thing. If it is state law for everyone to wear them, but then little kids get on a bus and don't even have them,makes no sense to me.

Too expensive, and not enough kids would wear them

I like the explanation given by "The straight Dope"

Some excerpts:

"...High seat backs don't help much when a bus is hit from the side or rolls over, and some people think more should be done. The national Parent-Teacher Association, for example, has called for seat belts on new buses. The federal government recently began a two-year investigation of school bus safety that will likely result in new precautions. According to Education Week more than two dozen state legislatures have considered mandatory seat belts over the years, although only New York and New Jersey currently require them.

Seat belts wouldn't necessarily make buses safer. On the contrary, some believe they would increase the number of serious injuries. Shoulder harnesses aren't practical in buses as currently designed, and lap belts are likely to cause more head and abdominal injuries because in a collision the wearer is jerked forward from the waist. "

Here's the complete story:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a981106a.html

Another reason that school buses don't have seat belts is that there is usually only one adult on the bus and in an emergency it would take a long time to help all the children that couldn't get the belt off because they were scared or injured.

I live in Australia too and yes the Gov is planning to impilment the seat belt laws in buss's. But let me ask you all, will it save lives? I say depending on what type of accident, and whom will be wearing the seat belts? If the bus has 4 x 12 rows of seats and everyone is belted in and the bus goes on it's side, at least 12 kids will be killed. Last night in Egypt, a bus went all over the place and the roof peeled off, six dead. Had the people been belted in, at least 12 would have been dead., as the bus must of skidded while on it's side. There is no way anyone can enforce the use of seat belts in a bus and I think it should be a presonal use in a private car too. If you are at fault while driving a car and not use the seat belt, you should get compo for your hospital treatment, but no other compo. If you were in the right of the accident and wearing the seat bealt at the time, you should also receive compo for pain and suffering.

I've often wondered that myself. To assume that the kids would not willingly use seat belts is most likely correct. But I fail to see why compliance could not be enforced, especially since seat belts really do save lives. I am living proof. I was recently in an accident where another driver hit on the passenger side. My husband and I were in our SUV, which are notorious for flipping over when struck broadside. This is exactly what happened. Fortunately, neither of us was hurt, and the police officers who arrived on the scene said our seatbelts were the only thing that saved us from fatal or severe injury.

I can't imagine 40 or 50 youngsters sitting unharnessed in a school bus that would be involved in a collision. I would think bus drivers should have the authority to insist that each child be buckled up, or not move the bus an inch until that happens. Letting kids have their way about noncompliance over something that's so vital to their safety and welfare is just plain ridiculous. One wonders what those children's classroom behavior is like. Don't teachers have authority to maintain order in their classrooms? By the same token, so should school bus drivers.

I live in NY, and when I was in school all the busses had seat belts. No one wore them though....... ever........