Seatbelts for students welcomed

The NSW Government announced it will adopt the majority of the recommendations made by the Independent School Bus Safety Community Advisory Committee’s inquiry into school bus safety in rural and regional NSW.

The government will spend more than $200million to fit seatbelts on almost 1700 buses across the state.

Member for Bega Andrew Constance welcomed “the investment in the safety of children in regional and rural NSW”.

Beginning this financial year, seatbelts will progressively be installed and standing phased out on dedicated school services (known to operators as contract ‘a’) over the next decade.

“There are more than 60,000 students across regional and rural NSW who travel on these dedicated school buses every weekday, covering more than 50 million kilometres each year,” Mr Constance said.

Owner/driver of a school bus route that services the Candelo area Robert Jeffery noted with the extended roll out it might be some time before seatbelts are installed on Bega Valley buses.

“All new buses on country routes must come fitted with the seatbelts from the start of this financial year, but existing buses will have to be fitted,” he said.

“Parents will have to be patient, but it will happen.”

Mr Jeffery praised the thoroughness of the School Bus Safety Advisory Committee.

“I think they’ve done a pretty good job of it,” he said.

“It wasn’t just about the buses, the committee has also looked into developing a standard to design rural bus stops to improve safety for the children.”

Most children on rural bus routes are picked up from the side of road in front of driveways, with some waiting around blind corners or bends that can place the students, bus driver and other traffic at risk.

Similarly, Jamie Klemm, managing director of Sapphire Coast Buslines, said implementation of the recommendations are welcome, but will not happen overnight.

“There is a lot that goes into these recommendations and we will follow it closely and support it on routes where it is deemed necessary.

“It’s a massive change, because it is not just about fitting seatbelts, it’s also about putting more buses on the road to limit the number of standees.”

Ms Klemm said two of the company’s 40 bus runs fit the contract ‘a’ category.

“I can’t see us being the first cabs off the rank as our buses travel mainly on sealed roads and we are not really one of the areas in NSW where the roads are dangerous.

“I also think money should be spent on areas around schools where traffic safety issues can be improved.”

Another 1580 contract ‘b’ buses – which are on average older, but which are also used by bus companies for other jobs during the day – will not be upgraded. 

The government explained its decision to limit the bus upgrades to contract ‘a’ buses by saying it would not have been able to control the scope of any other program. 

Extending the upgrade to contract ‘b’ buses meant it would “also cover all buses chartered by schools or even buses owned by local clubs”.