Sisters officials don’t want seat belts

Angi Gardinier and Ted Thonstad have not been asked to go to Salem to testify on House Bill 2502, which would require seat belts on all school buses. But if they were, this is what they’d say:

“Don’t do it.”

Gardinier is the transportation supervisor for Sisters School District, managing a fleet of 13 buses. She has been with the district since she started as a bus driver 21 years ago. Thonstad is the district superintendent.

The issue of seat belts on school buses comes around in the Oregon Legislature almost as dependably as a school bus making its pickups. This session’s proposal was introduced by Rep. Donna Nelson, R-McMinnville. Her bill would require the installation of seat belts on all of the approximately 6,000 school buses in Oregon.

At a House Transportation Committee hearing recently, the bill was opposed by a representative of the Oregon Department of Education. Deborah Lincoln, head of the department’s student transportation program, said retrofitting buses with belts would be expensive, costing an estimated $9 million, and would not necessarily improve safety.

She said federal studies have shown that lap belts in school buses can cause head and neck injuries in some types of collisions.

Asked about the bill at her bus-yard office behind Sisters Elementary School, Gardinier said she understands why some people favor Nelson’s proposal.

“You know, we have children in our cars belted in but in school buses with no belts, so it can be a little concerning to a parent,” she said. “But unless a seat belt is used properly it can do more harm than good. The automobile industry itself has gotten away from lap belts…”

She says modern buses are designed to “keep the kids in a compartmentalized area in the event of an accident.” Laws and regulations govern the types of materials used to construct seats, the amount of padding and distances between the seats.

One major problem with seat belts is that students would have to be monitored to see that they put the belts on correctly. Sisters now has one bus with belts, a 12-seat bus used for special education students. “Those belts are on that bus because we have children not able to sit unaided on the bus; the belts are there for their safety. That bus has 12 seat belts so it’s easy for the driver to monitor those as opposed to an 84-passenger bus with 84 seat belts,” Gardinier explained.

Gardinier has one other concern: If you do have an accident and the bus turns on its side, “how do you get those children unbuckled?”

For his part, asked about the same issue, Thonstad was even more emphatic. “I think you’re just adding to the cost, creating a problem for the driver who’s going to have to enforce students putting those belts on, and you may create more mischief among the students…

“School buses are the safest transportation on the highway…I’d rather have my kid on a school bus than anything, if it’s being driven by an experienced, trained driver. I just don’t think seat belts are necessary.”

Thonstad added: “I’d rather have the time kids are on the bus shorter than to have the driver have to go back and buckle them in every time little kids get on. Then I’ve got Johnny sitting back here and he says, “Billy’s got his seat belt off.” Do you stop the bus alongside the road and go back and make Billy put his seat belt on? It’s a colossal headache, quite frankly.”

Thonstad said he was “wearing three hats when I tell you this: my superintendent hat, my board member hat (he is a former Redmond School Board member) and my parent hat.”

Gardinier said the school district has no record of serious accidents that would provide an argument for seat belts.

Should school busses have seatbelts? Tell us what you think. Comment at http://www.nuggetnews.com or email [email protected]