THE State Government’s $200million safety upgrade of dedicated school buses has, on the whole, been welcomed by safety advocates, parent bodies and those in the industry.
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Since 2001, after the death of a teenage boy on a school bus near Ulladulla, NSW action group Belt up for Safety has been campaigning to have seatbelts installed in school buses.
During this time, two more children have been killed and hundreds injured in bus crashes over the last decade in NSW.
For parents, seatbelts on buses provide them with reassurance in the knowledge their children are secure in their seat in the event of an accident.
Ray Stewart has four children who travel from Mogilla to Bega every day on the school bus.
Two of his children attend Bega High and two are students at Saint Patrick’s School.
Their daily journey begins on a six kilometre stretch of dirt road on a small Candelo bus, which has seatbelts, then they change over to a larger bus that does not have seatbelts, and travel the remainder of the distance on a sealed road.
Mr Stewart said he doesn’t agree with children being able to get out of their seats while the bus is moving.
“I can’t see a downside in putting seatbelts in school buses,” he said.
“For obvious reasons it is better to keep the kids restrained in their seats in case of an accident as an important safety measure, but being buckled up also stops them from moving around the bus and creating a distraction for the driver.”
Mr Stewart said government assistance in paying for the instalment of seatbelts was a significant step in making buses safer.
“This aids with the transitional costs for the bus companies.
“For obvious reasons I’m surprised it wasn’t introduced 20 years ago.”
NRMA president Wendy Machin said having seatbelts installed was a big step forward.
“We know that students travelling to school in rural and regional areas are exposed to twice the risk of injury than those in the Sydney metropolitan area,” Ms Machin said.
The NRMA was part of the School Bus Safety Community Advisory Committee.
“We are pleased to see that the NRMA’s calls for safer school bus transportation will be acted upon, and we will continue to work with the NSW government to see the remaining recommendations implemented,” Ms Machin said.
OTHER recommendations made by the committee which the NSW Government will adopt to improve regional and rural school bus safety include:
* regular monitoring of new and emerging vehicle safety technologies and where necessary and appropriate, encouraging their use through regional bus contracts;
* A new Student Code of Conduct to ensure parents, students and bus operators know their responsibilities when it comes to wearing seatbelts;
* encouraging schools to use buses fitted with seatbelts for excursions and other charters;
* developing guidelines that outline responsibilities for rural and regional bus operators to encourage students to wear seatbelts when fitted;
* developing a standard for designing rural bus stops to improve safety;
* reviewing regulations relating to speed limits around buses when school bus warning lights are flashing;
* exploring new ways to communicate with stakeholders to improve student safety around school bus zones; and
* rolling out communication strategies to identify, share and promote good school bus safety practice.
Full details are available at www.transport.nsw.gov.au.
