HISD tightens seat belt policy
New buses to have 3-point restraints
Houston ISD announced Tuesday that any new school bus it buys will have threepoint seat belts, complying with a new federal recommendation that comes two months after the crash of a district bus killed two students.
The state’s largest district will become one of the first in the area to move toward buses with the seat belts that strap across the shoulder and the waist, like those in cars.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration changed its position this month, advising — but not requiring — that all school buses have the three-point belts.
“School buses are already one of the safest modes of transportation available to students,” Superintendent Terry Grier said in a statement Tuesday. “If the NHTSA believes three-point seatbelts will make our students even safer, we will absolutely act on it.”
After the September bus crash, Grier’s
administration said it would wait for more information to decide its stance on seat belts. In addition to the fatalities, two students were injured in the wreck.
The bus that crashed, plummeting off Loop 610 after being struck by a car, had lap belts. Authorities have not said whether the four students on board were wearing them.
Nathan Graf, who oversees transportation for the Houston Independent School District, said shortly after the wreck that the district does not require students to wear lap belts. A district statement later said that HISD interprets a state mandate to buckle up on school buses, if the vehicles have seat belts, to apply only to the threepoint kind.
A 2009 Texas law says that school buses must be equipped with three-point seat belts — but only if the state provides funding, which it does not. An initial allocation of $10 million dwindled to less than half a million dollars amid budget cuts and little interest from school districts.
HISD has roughly 1,100 school buses. About 90 have three-point belts, and roughly 430 have lap belts, according to the district.
HISD did not disclose Tuesday how many new buses it planned to buy or a timeline for purchases.
Policy shift
The district has bought at least 62 new buses in 2015, according to data received via a public-records request. It bought an average of 37 buses a year over the prior five years.
Dallas County Schools, which provides transportation for Dallas ISD, the state’s second-largest district, and its neighbors, has said that 64 percent of its active bus fleet has threepoint seat belts, while the others have lap belts.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administra- tion long has declined to advocate for seat belts on school buses. Mark Rosekind, the agency’s top administrator, announced a shift in position on Nov. 8.
His agency also is considering whether to push for rule changes to make the three-point belts mandatory on all school buses. (They already are required on small buses, which typically transport specialneeds students.)
“School buses should have seat belts. Period,” Rosekind said in prepared remarks. “It should be utterly uncontroversial. There is no question that seat belts offer improved safety. Seat belts will save the lives of children who we might otherwise lose in crashes.”
District sued
An agency presentation given in July said that a federal mandate for threepoint seat belts could save two lives annually, assuming the devices were worn all the time. The estimated cost of the seat belts ranged from more than $7,300 to $10,300, the agency said.
On Monday, a mother whose daughter died in the HISD bus wreck in September sued the school district and the bus manufacturer, International Truck and Engine Corp.
The lawsuit, filed by Melody Johnson on behalf of Mariya Johnson, alleges that the school bus was “unreasonably dangerous.” It notes that the bus only had lap belts.
“The vehicle industry has known for decades that 3-point seat belts are inherently safer than only lap belts and that they help to prevent ejection better,” said the lawsuit, which seeks more than $1 million in damages.
Spokeswomen for HISD and the bus company, now called Navistar, declined to comment.
State Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, and Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, had asked Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to commission a study of school bus safety before the 2017 legislative session. But the issue was not among the interim charges given to the education and transportation committees.
“There is no question that seat belts offer improved safety. Seat belts will save the lives of children who we might otherwise lose in crashes.” Mark Rosekind, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator