School buses unlikely to get seatbelts soon
Okanagan school boards say belts not required by law and retrofitting existing buses would be too costly
Time and money will determine whether or not school buses will be retrofitted for seatbelts in the Okanagan.
Moyra Baxter, who chairs the Central Okanagan school board, said at a meeting this week that while she has spoken to the superintendent about this issue, it hasn’t come to the board’s table for discussion just yet.
“It’s a national situation. It’s not just a B.C. situation,” she said. “We are waiting to hear what happens provincially.”
Due to the cost of adding seatbelts to existing buses that weren’t designed to accommodate them, Baxter added, it’s a matter of the provincial government stepping up and absorbing the cost.
“The cost of putting seatbelts in all school buses . . . would be very expensive,” she said. “If it becomes a law, I expect the government will pay to retrofit the buses because we would have to do that.”
Until then, the board can’t confirm it will consider discussing the idea, she said.
In the South Okanagan, School District 67 has taken an independent stance on seatbelts after a crash on Highway 97 in 2011, when a car crossed the centre line and hit a minibus carrying 14 Princess Margaret Secondary students.
Nine students were injured, along with the teacher who was driving. The driver of the car was killed, while two passengers in another vehicle suffered minor injuries.
“We actually just had this conversation at the table at the last board meeting,” School District 67 chair Shelley Clarke said Friday.
“Every bus that we have does have seatbelts in them now — the small buses,” said Clarke.
“We changed our policy back when there was that accident,” Clarke explained. “We made it a policy that we had seatbelts inside our minibuses.”
The school district’s director of facilities, Doug Gorcak, explained that the district ensures minibuses purchased since implementation of the policy have seatbelts, despite there being no current law from Transport Canada stating they are required.
“Right now, we’re going with the safest thing we know,” he said. “We’re meeting all of the Canada standards.”
As for the larger yellow school buses, Gorcak said the current design would make seatbelts impractical and could cause children to hurt themselves.
“When you look at a school bus, they designed the current seating . . . in a compartmentalized situation,” he explained. “They put high backs on the seats, they built the seats so they’re energy absorbing . . . they’re designed to take (an) impact.”
The seats are spaced closer together to provide that security, he said.
“In a school bus, if you had a lap belt on, you would actually hit your head on the seat in front of you (in the event of an accident),” Gorcak explained.
Clarke voiced similar concerns, saying that while she understands why buses weren’t retrofitted for seatbelts, she hopes that one day buses will be designed for both comfort and safety.
But, as Baxter said, the cost of retrofitting existing buses proves to be too costly to add seatbelts with the changes required to the existing seats.
The issue is again in the forefront due to the current court case involving Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, driver of a semi-trailer truck that collided with the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus after he failed to brake at a stop sign.
Sixteen people died and 13 were injured in the crash.