Just last month, on Friday, September 19th, two school buses transporting student members and adult volunteers of our own marching band to Norwin High School were cut off by a truck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The incident made the local news. The first bus slammed on its breaks, but the second bus did not brake in time. Fortunately, the crash was not especially severe, although six students and two adult volunteers were sent to the hospital with treatable injuries.

The accident raises what would seem to be an obvious question about bus safety — and not only at NA but throughout Pennsylvania.

Why don’t Pennsylvania school buses have seat belts?

It turns out that the answer is more complicated than expected.

“The design and construction of a school bus has hidden safety features that most people don’t even notice,” North Allegheny Director of Transportation Scott Mergen told The Uproar. “The floor level in the bus is higher than the impact zone of most vehicles, moving passengers above the area of impact. There are also four black side rails on a bus. They are located in specific places to increase the safety of a school bus. The bottom one is designed to reduce the impact force of a vehicle and limit how far it travels under the bus. The remaining three side rails are designed to protect the occupants by reinforcing the side of the bus.”

Additionally, the odds of a school bus crashing are remarkably low. In fact, students are 70 times more likely to safely reach school by bus rather than by car. 

Mergen continued, “The primary reason large school buses in Pennsylvania do not require seat belts stems from the federal safety design known as ‘compartmentalization.’ This passive safety system is unique to large school buses. Compartmentalization means the seats themselves act as protective barriers. They are high, heavily padded, closely spaced, and engineered to absorb crash energy, effectively creating a protective ‘compartment’ for each passenger.”

But compartmentalization may have limited advantages. According to some critics, the feature only helps if the crash is coming from the back or front of the bus. If the crash is coming from the side, compartmentalization does not entirely ensure safety.

In 2022, a school bus transporting middle school children was hit by a speeding car in New Mexico. The car hit the side of the bus, causing it to flip over, resulting in many injuries from the students. Video footage of the accident from inside the bus is not easy to watch — viewer discretion is advised.

Another accident occurred last August in Texas when ten elementary school children were sent to the hospital after their bus had rolled over. Two of the ten children were life-flighted to another hospital. 

If seat belts were a feature on the buses, it is hard to deny that the outcomes of these crashes would have been drastically different.

Sure, a seat belt on every bus seat is an added expense for school districts, but eight states in the U.S. have already determined that it’s a justifiable added expense. It’s time for Pennsylvania to become the ninth.

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Editors’ note: All opinions expressed on The Uproar are a reflection solely of the beliefs of the bylined author and not the journalism program at NASH.  We continue to welcome school-appropriate comments and guest articles.