Ohio won't mandate seat belts on school buses, recommends other safety improvements
Ohio won't mandate seat belts on school buses, a group formed after an Ohio 11-year-old died concluded Wednesday.
“A statewide mandate of seat belts on buses is not the most effective use of government resources to keep our kids safe," Ohio School Bus Safety Working Group leader Andy Wilson said.
Instead, the state would offer money to schools if they decide to upgrade buses with seat belts, illuminated school bus signs, cameras, LED lights and other safety features.
Upgrading most of the safety features, minus the seat belts, would cost about $13,000 per bus, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said. Adding seat belts would tack on about $19,000 to the bill. With about 15,000 school buses in Ohio, those upgrades could cost between $195 million and $480 million, but it's not clear how many schools would participate.
The Ohio School Bus Safety Working Group was formed after 11-year-old Aidan Clark died in a school bus crash in Clark County that injured 20 others on Aug. 22. More than 50 Northwestern Local Schools students were on board when Hermanio Joseph's Odyssey struck the bus. Joseph was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and awaits trial.
The working group also recommended more frequent and advanced training for school bus drivers, increasing the annual training from four hours to six hours. That training would cost the state about $5 million per year, and it's not yet clear where the money will come from.
Other proposals include:
Recommending school districts to conduct annual performance evaluations for bus drivers.
Requiring school districts to offer school bus safety orientation for students and parents at the beginning of the school year.
Inspecting how safe the area around schools is, which the Ohio Department of Transportation has already started.
Increasing penalties for drivers who endanger students or cause crashes that lead to passenger deaths. This would need lawmakers' approval.
Recommending that schools conduct safety audits of their bus routes to reduce safety risks.
Should schools require seat belts?
Federal law requires seat belts on buses that weigh less than 10,000 pounds, but there is no universal requirement for the larger buses that most children use.
Nine states require seat belts on school buses. However, three of those require local approval, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some of those states require locals to sign off before requiring seat belts.
In 2018, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that other states follow suit and install seat belts on new school buses.
Adding seat belts comes with some unintended consequences, such as needing to cut a student out of a safety belt during an emergency, said Wilson, adding that the bus driver in the August crash asked Wilson to not mandate seat belts statewide.
Over the past five years, school buses have been involved in 5,539 crashes in Ohio, or 0.4% of the 1.3 million crashes that occurred during that time, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol data.
“School buses are the safest method of transportation for school students," DeWine said.
While rare, school bus crashes can turn tragic.
On Nov. 14, three high school students and three adults died in a charter bus crash on Interstate 70 west of Columbus. The Tuscarawas Valley Local School District band students were headed to an Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus.
Most of the proposed changes would not impact charter buses. One recommendation would require schools to have a safety checklist that the commercial bus must meet to win the contract to transport students.
Dispatch reporters Bethany Bruner and Bailey Galion contributed to this article.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio won't mandate seat belts on school buses
