HB0168 | School Bus Safety Requirements

Research has concluded that high backed padded seats and seat belts together improve overall bus passenger safety by providing true compartmentalization in accidents, especially side impacts and rollovers, and the use of seat belts does not significantly increase evacuation time, and current seat belt buckle design coupled with education on evacuation helps ensure that no child of school age will be trapped in a bus by their seat belt; and use of seat belts on school buses will reinforce the important safety habit of buckling up, and Students who are properly belted in are less distracting to the school bus driver, and a strong seat belt use policy will significantly reduce fatal actions such as putting one's head or arm out of a school bus window, or falling out of a school bus door, by school bus passengers.