From United States Department of Transportation data by the Wendall Cox Consultancy School Transport Factbook at http://www.publicpurpose.com.

The school bus is consistently the mode of transportation, year, after year, after year. Indeed, each school day, approximately 27,500,000 students in the United States and Canada travel safely to and from school. Estimates are that there are over 10 billion individual trips each school year.  There are fewer injuries and deaths per passenger mile in pupil transportation than in any other form of transportation.

Despite the tremendous safety record of school buses parents will occasionally ask why the modern school bus is not equipped with seat belts.   Some people who are unfamiliar with, or do not understand, modern school bus design, have suggested that school buses could be made safer through the installation and utilization of seat belts.  The subject has been debated between proponents of seat belts, governmental agencies, the transportation community, and school bus manufacturers.  The resulting discussions have often been emotional and at times have centered on unsupported opinion rather than research and accident data.

The most common argument is that because an automobile is equipped with seat belts a school bus should be also.  The reality is that a school bus is not an automobile.  It is a large, heavy commercial vehicle that is designed for only one purpose - the safe transportation of school children.  Seat belts, in fact, will in certain circumstances defeat many of the safety features which are built into every post 1977 school bus under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.  The use of seat belts in a serious frontal collision can directly lead to serious injury or death for a school bus occupant.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is responsible for establishing Federal motor vehicle safety standards in the United States to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries from motor vehicle crashes, including those involving school buses. NHTSA's Canadian counterpart, Transport Canada, performs the same responsibilities for Canada.

Research over thirty years by the United Department of Transportation, NHTSA, Transport Canada, and other agencies has consistently shown that due to the design and construction of the modern school bus students are safer without the use of seat belts.

There are many factors which must be considered in evaluating the use of seat belts in school buses.  The school bus is NOT an automobile and must not be treated as such in any discussion.  The school bus is a large, heavy, commercial vehicle with its own unique design and color.  Because of its design, passengers in a modern school bus are riding above the normal impact zone for outside vehicles.  The school bus encloses the children within a great mass of energy absorbing material.  This passenger enclosure is often referred to as a "circle of safety".

All school buses manufactured since 1977 have incorporated a passive crash protection system called compartmentalization which is mandated under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 222. Under Standard 222 the school bus seat was redesigned with high backs and thick padding to absorb energy and protect students. Certain seat components are designed bend or collapse in high impact accidents to absorb crash forces and protect occupants. This allows for distribution of crash energy in the event of an impact.

The design and construction of the modern school bus centers on passenger safety, not on fuel efficiency or appearance appeal.  School transportation equipment is the most stringently regulated class of motor vehicles on the nation’s streets and highways.  Every feature of a school bus is carefully specified and regulated through a series of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).  Additional requirements are contained in the National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures which are incorporated into law in most states, including Minnesota.

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards protect passengers by requiring that roof standards must support at least one and one-half times the weight of the vehicle, certain body components are designed to remain rigid and offer occupant protection is a crash, while others are designed to collapse and absorb energy.

The school bus also has its own unique identity and color which affords instant recognition to other motorists.  A school bus is not a high speed vehicle and, therefore, the potential for injury is reduced in the event of a collision.  The large size and mass of a school bus provides protection to the students.  The basic design of all school buses does not include any doors in the passenger area which could fly open in a collision nor windshields to injure a student.  With the seating design and barriers required under FMVSS 222 it is virtually impossible for a student to be thrown out an entrance door or emergency exit.

In 1976 the United States Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, adopted a series of new and revised Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to which all school buses manufactured after April 1, 1977, must conform.  Buses manufactured after April 1, 1977, are referred to as Post Standard.

One of the Standards, FMVSS 222, established passive barriers to prevent or reduce or reduce injuries, requires strengthened seats capable of withstanding crash forces, and mandated higher seat backs to help prevent whiplash in rear impacts.  The Standards further requires that the backs of all seats be padded to reduce injuries in frontal impacts and spread the impact of a collision.  These features act much like an automotive airbag.

Industry concern centers on three aspects of seat belt usage: effectiveness of seat belts, potential for injury from belts, and the potential side effects of belt usage.

Morris Adams, former Vice President of Thomas Built Buses summarized these concerns as follows:  Sudden thrusts against a belt can be more harmful than the child would receive without the belt.  This is especially true of the child in a compartmentalized, well padded and energy absorbent environment.

We've seen cases where buses have turned over and upside down.  Keep in mind this is not an automobile.  This is a much larger vehicle.  Can you imagine 66 or 90 kids strapped in with a restraining belt and the bus hanging suspended from seats?  Can you imagine them being strapped in case of a fire situation? Experts in pupil transportation can cite you accidents in their districts or their state whereby if those children had been strapped in there would have been many deaths involved in this type of accident.  (From a Dialogue with Morris Adams, School Bus Fleet Magazine, March 1984)

Test results, accident investigations, studies by the United States and Canadian Governments, as well as tests and studies by the transportation industry indicate that seat belts do not offer added protection to the student passengers and may, in fact, inflict injury or result in death in certain accident situations.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states in it's report Safety Belts in School Buses that the NHTSA compartmentalization position is based on extensive research, crash testing, and performance history for over 20 years.

NHTSA believes that the occupant protection in school buses manufactured after April 1, 1977, plus the inherent safety of a highly recognizable vehicle that travels on a regular route, provides a high level of safety protection.

There is no body of data available to definitely demonstrate whether safety belts in large school buses would increase occupant protection.  The number of school bus occupant deaths is so low that assessing the extent to which adding safety belts could prevent death or injury is not feasible.

Current compartmentalization countermeasures are most effective in frontal crashes that account for 55.9 percent of all school bus fatalities (from vehicular collisions).  The high, well padded seats absorb crash forces across the occupant's entire body.  With lap belts, the midsection of the occupant's body remains at the seat while the head and upper portion of the body rotates forward.  As a result, the head and face may strike the seat the occupant is facing with greater force than would have occurred in the absence of belts.