1. Katy, TX injury lawyers note that modern Katy, TX school buses are actually very safe, and have special seats designed to reduce the dangers of injury from a crash impact. The thickly padded, container-type seats are positioned closely together to help absorb the impact of a wreck and cushion the child from potential injuries. A number of studies show that school buses actually provide the safest form of ground transportation. About 24 million school children ride more than 4 billion miles a year to and from school on school buses, but only about 6 children die per year in school bus accidents. By contrast, more than 800 children die each year on their way to school using other forms of transportation (parent-driven cars, bikes, or their own two feet).
2. Studies have shown that school children suffer greater dangers of severe injury from misusing seatbelts than from not using seatbelts at all. Katy, TX injury lawyers caution that most seatbelt restraint systems aren’t really designed for the size and weight of a school child, but for an average-sized adult.
3. The cost is prohibitive. Installing seatbelts adds about $8,000 to $15,000 to the cost of a new school bus. Multiply that number by the number of buses in a school district’s fleet, and you might begin to see the problem. School districts and education programs already suffer from cash-strapped conditions. And when studies all seem to point to a negligible increase in safety and a possible increase in certain types of severe neck and abdominal injuries from seatbelts, schools can’t justify the cost.
4. School bus drivers would not be able to enforce proper seat belt use at all times (especially while actively driving the school bus), and these drivers and their employer school districts fear potential liability because of it. Katy, TX injury lawyers remind you that most accident injuries have more than one cause. And injured parties can indeed sue all of those at fault for their share in causing the injury.
5. Federal law does not require seatbelts in buses over 10,000 pounds. The large, yellow school buses that you may be accustomed to seeing around Katy, TX are all over 10,000 pounds. Those school buses that weigh in at less than 10,000 pounds are the tiny ones that typically seat about 6 to 10 passengers.
6. Texas has not fully funded the legislative measure that requires each new school bus to have 3-point seatbelts. So the State school Board has interpreted the new requirement as a voluntary one.