Does anyone know why school buses and Greyhound buses don't have seat belts?

Nope, but in England it has only recently (last couple of years) become law to have them on coaches (greyhounds)

i dunno...my son's bus has them

mdiver said:

Same here. It ISN'T law that people have to use them though

I have always wondered this as well.

I kinda always thought that they didn't have seat belts in school buses because to either buy new buses or install new seats in old ones is not a cost they are willing to absorb.

You hardly ever see new school buses on the road either.

wow, all new buses I've been on here have them.

JustErin said:

I don't think they MAKE new school buses. They have to just come out like that.

ZombieKitten said:

That's good.

First thought would be who is going to unbuckle all the kids in the event of a catastrophic accident.

Buses have high seats and there is no way to get to the front of the bus except down the middle, so the chances of a kid going through the windshield are about zero.

Graycap23 said:

I know the buses that the kid's school charters has them for sure, they are brand new. It's true they won't do anything to upgrade the old ones. I guess a phase out is in progress, but very slow.

Mars23 said:

So u don't they should have seat belts?

Graycap23 said:

I don't really have an opinion, but can see problems as well as benefits. What do the risk analysis say. How many injuries or deaths are attributed to lack of seatbelts on buses?

Mars23 said:

So kids flipping and flying all over the bus duringan accident, hitting onther kids, is better?
Seat belts not only make sure you do go flying through windshilds, but also make sure you don't go flying into another kid.
There was an ad on the Israeli TV a few years ago, showing a couple in the back seat, and the guy wasn't wearing a seatbelt. during an accident, he want flying all over, ending up hitting the girl next to him and killing her. The windshiled is not the only thing you should be worried about.

ArielB said:

Wow it sounds like I wrote I would prefer kids flying into each other causing injuries and death. I must have blacked out when I typed that and then unconsciously edited the post, leaving no evidence of the edit. I am amazing.

Clearly buses are death traps. Why have we sent millions of kids to their certain doom over the years?

Oddly I've never actually thought of this before. I went to school during a period of mass bussing and desegregation of schools ...in retrospect I'm actually amazed that I spent my childhood riding buses unequipped with seatbelts, and thankful that there were scant few, if any accidents when we were growing up...
[Edited 3/3/08 14:44pm]

My former boss lost part of his finger, on a bus accident. If there were seat belts, then the chances of him cutting himself from the broken windows would've been much smaller.
It's now a law in Israel, for all school busses to have seat belts. Finally.

call me old fashion but i survived school buses without safety belts.


and don't me started on the antibactorial craze!!!!

- The greater weight and mass of a school bus means that passengers are less vulnerable in a school bus than in an automobile.

- The children sit above the usual point of impact.

- The children are not seated near doors or large window openings, so they are not likely to be thrown from the vehicle. Protection from ejection is a primary function of automobile seat belts.

- School buses incorporate a passive restraint system called compartmentalization, which is designed to protect children without seat belts.

- Compartmentalization is more manageable. The protection exists and is in force without depending on any action by the children or any extra special supervision by drivers or monitors. Seat belts require discipline and supervision to keep them clean, unraveled, in use, and properly adjusted.

- Compartmentalization works equally well for one, two or three students per seat. Today's 39-inch wide standard seats may contain three small children or two large ones or any combination in between. Arranging seat belts to properly handle any combination is difficult, if not impossible.

- Yound children (under 8 years of age) don't have the fully developed abdominal areas to use seat belts. Their abdominal area and bone structure are not adequately developed to take the force of a lap belt alone. They need the help of chest harnesses also, which adds to the complexity of a proper safety belt solution.

There's a bunch of other reasons, got most of these from Google lol...but I remember the whole debate about seat belts on school busses. Pros and cons on both sides.

Theres no seat belt on public transport/school buses here, but Coaches/Cartered buses have them and IS compulsory to wear them, the bus driver even gives a warning before we take off, but does that make me wear one, especially in those small cramped seats? Hell no, its not like the driver comes us before the trip to make sure everyone is wearing one, and if thats the case why the hell isnt there one in the toilet? what if you taking a dump and you crash? your screwed then

how high is it to the roof of a bus? guessing 6.5, 7 ft?
*i believe* the reason belts have not been mandated is because of possible accident scenarios that would leave 48 minor children unable to free themselves.

imagine the bus on it's roof and all the kids dangling 6ft in the air upside down.
imagine a fiery collision with the driver incapacitated and a majority of the kids unable to get out of their belts and the bus in time.

yes, being thrown has very real dangers. seats on school buses are placed very close together have padded backs. a link here describes how buses are not built like cars so seatbelts just wouldn't work the same and may cause more injury. http://www.safety-council...usbelt.htm

btw my sister died because she wasn't wearing her belt in her car... so i am far from being soft on seatbelt use i just don't think it works with such large numbers of children in the scenarios i described.

All of the cheese buses i've been on had seatbelts!