One of the most important days of a child's life is the first day of school.With their lunch box, backpack, and a kiss on the cheek you walk them to the bus stop on a chilled September morning and wait for the large yellow school bus to come up your neighborhood's drive.Safety is foremost in the minds of parents sending their children out into the world, which in today's busy society, is an important step in preventing one of our nations most tragic accidents from happening.
School bus accidents are rising at an alarming rate across the country.Pediatrics, a magazine dedicated to children's health, estimates that in three year more than 50,000 children have been involved in non-fatal injuries involving school bus related injuries.These numbers are not only frightening, but tragic as more and more children continue to get hurt when boarding buses.
Studies show that there are 23 million children who rely on school buses as their primary transportation to school.Out of 50 states, only New York, New Jersey, and Florida have seat belts available for students to wear.With the countless accidents we have seen it should be clear that the Department of Transportation needs to reevaluate the safety standards on school buses.It is estimated that is would only cost an addition $4,000 to add seat belts to each bus, thus making buses safer if in an accident.
Some opponents of this measure argue that even if we add seatbelts to buses, the challenge of getting students to actually use them is the greatest obstacle of all.However, if parents take charge of encouraging the use of seatbelts in their own cars, and stress the importance of safety in vehicles in general, it will teach children good seatbelt wearing habits in own lives.Schools also need to take responsibility for encouraging their students to be safe and to use seat belts at all times when in automobiles.
Although school buses are in some way less safe than taking your own child to and from school, it is still much safer than allowing older siblings or other teenage drivers to drive young children to school. Therefore we should encourage the Department of Transportation to reexamine school bus safety standards by putting in seat belts, and perhaps redesigning the top heavy buses so that they will be safer in a crash.
If you are interested in more information concerning bus safety or bus related accidents, contact William and Kherkher, school bus accident lawyers.
Joseph Devine
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