NHTSA School Bus Safety Ruling Calls for Higher Seat Backs and Introduces New Seat Belt Requirements
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced its "final rule" on improving school bus safety. Only new buses are subject to the rule, which goes into effect in 2011.
The new rule requires new school buses to have 24-inch-high seat backs that will hopefully prevent heavier and taller kids from being thrown over their seats during a school bus crash so that they don’t injure themselves or the children riding in front of them. Also, all new school buses must now include seats with safety latches that can be removed or flipped without the use of special tools.
New Seat Belt Requirements
While smaller school buses (weighing under 5 tons) will be required to install lap and shoulder belts in all their seats, large school buses still won’t be required to come with seat belts—even though studies indicate that 1,900 injuries a year could be prevented if seat belts were installed in large school buses.
US Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters pointed out that installing seat belts in large school buses will limit how many kids could ride in the vehicles, forcing students to walk or ride in cars to school—two methods of travel that (statistically) are not considered as safe as riding in school buses. Instead, federal safety regulators are providing new criteria for installing safety belts in large school buses and leaving the discretion of whether seat belts should be installed in these buses in the hands of state and local governments.
School Bus Defects
There are 474,000 school buses in the United States. Unfortunately, there are school bus manufacturers that continue to act negligently when designing and making these motor vehicles. School bus defects, such as poorly designed handrails that can easily catch a child’s clothes or school bag straps as he or she exits or enters the bus, defective brakes, faulty tires, and defective seats, have led to school bus recalls.
When a catastrophic bus accident occurs because a school bus or one of its parts was poorly designed or made and kids on the bus or others on the road are seriously injured or killed, the school bus manufacturer and/or any other responsible parties must be held liable for products liability.
New Federal Rule to Make School Buses Safer, Allow Districts to Use Federal Funds to Pay for Seat Belt Installations, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters Announces, NHTSA, October 15, 2008
Related Web Resources:
Read the Final Rule on School Buses, NHTSA (PDF)
Our products liability lawyers have represented many families whose children have been seriously injured in traffic accidents caused by defective auto parts. Please contact Gilbert, Ollanik, & Komyatte, PC today.
