Wynne proposes all school buses have seatbelts

Newly revealed research suggests safety benefits for side impacts, rollovers

It’s time for Ontario to buckle down and make it mandatory that school buses have seatbelts so kids can buckle up. That’s the idea behind a private member’s bill from MPP and former premier Kathleen Wynne requiring buses to have three-point belt systems given recently uncovered research showed they can prevent injuries.

For decades, and based on a 1984 Transport Canada study, the “compartmentalized” seat design of school buses — highbacked, padded seats to absorb the impact of a front-end collision — was thought to be best, but that always seemed counterintuitive, Wynne said.

Now, 2010 Transport Canada research — only recently revealed after an investigation by CBC’s The Fifth Estate — questioned that logic and also found belts are best for side impact or rollovers.

“The purpose of this bill … is to require installation of threepoint seatbelts — so the belts that go across the chest and across the lap — on new school buses, on school buses that are going to be on the road for 45 minutes or more and school buses that are going to be on the 400-series of highways or equivalent highways” by 2020, said Wynne, who is also a for- mer transportation and education minister. Eventually, all school buses would require belts for forward-facing seats.

Some 800,000 students are transported to and from school each day in Ontario on the recognizable yellow vehicles. Since 1999, 16 deaths and more than 6,000 injuries have been reported “so we need to look for new ways of keeping our students, our kids, safer,” Wynne said at Queen’s Park.

“I spent two years as the minister of transportation in Ontario, more than three years as minister of education, and five years as the premier,” Wynne added.

“In all of those roles, when this issue arose … because it did come up often, the response that I got back always, was that we were relying on a study that had been done by Transport Canada in 1984.

“And the results of that report were that lap-belts in (head-on) frontal collisions … the lap belts would make the situation more dangerous. That, in fact, the way the seats were built ... actually made the school bus safer without seatbelts.”

She said it is research all other provinces have relied on as well in decision-making, and “that’s why in this country we have not seen a move forward on seatbelts in school buses.”

In the U.S., about eight states require seatbelts on buses, including New York.

The CBC recently uncovered the 2010 report that was kept under wraps, which showed that three-point belts can prevent ejection and “create a safer environment for children on school buses.” However, Wynne added, “that’s not to say school buses aren’t safe. They are safe relative to other vehicles. The point I’m making with this legislation is just that they can be safer.”

The cost to install seatbelts in new buses is estimated to be $7,000 to $10,000, and retrofitting existing buses runs about $10,000 to $15,000 per vehicle. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the move is worth every penny to improve safety for children.

Wynne suggested that school bus owners and governments work out a way to cover the cost.