Frequently Asked Transportation Questions
1. Why aren’t students required to wear seatbelts on
the large buses?
Seatbelts in cars are secured to the frame of the car.
Everyone who rides in a
car should wear a seat belt. In a bus the seatbelts are only
secured to the frame of
the seat. If you have three students weighing 100 pounds each in
one bus seat,
that seat would probably rip out of the bus floor in a crash.
Also, if a bus ever
caught fire, the children’s small fingers would probably not be
strong enough to
unbuckle the seatbelt. We do have seatbelt cutters on every bus,
but the driver
would not have time to cut every child free in the case of a
fire on a full bus.
If a child is seated properly on a bus, i.e. seated facing
forward with child’s
back to the back of the seat, the child is protected by the
bus’s
“compartmentalization.” Thick padding, high back seats, and 14
gauge steel in
the side of the bus make-up this “compartmentalization.”
The sensational video that has been shown on television recently
with the bus
tipping on its side and the students on the left side falling on
top of the students on
the right does not tell the whole story. In truth, no child was
seriously injured. If
the children all had lap belts on, some children might have been
hanging and
some of the seats might have pulled loose, possibly causing
serious injuries.
If a parent still wants his or her child to wear a seatbelt, a
note stating such
should be presented to the driver or sent to the transportation
department.
2. What can be done if a driver is not treating
students with respect?
We are working very hard to insure that all our staff
has the skills needed to
effectively deal with students. If a parent feels that his or
her child has been
treated disrespectfully, that parent should call the
Transportation Office at 587-
4545 and ask to discuss this with a supervisor.
3. Bus design has not changed in many years. Shouldn’t
buses come out with new
features every year?
Actually, this is the first year that buses have come out with
new features.
The buses we plan to order this year have the following:
• One piece windshield with larger wiper coverage area for
clearer vision
and to reduce blind spots when students cross
• Controls for the door and crossing lights are on the steering
wheel so
the drivers can keep both hands on the wheel and they don’t have
to
take their eyes off the road to locate the controls
• A “No Student Left Behind” system that signals if a driver
does not go
to the back of the bus to check for students after a run.