Greetings all. 

The fact is that the laws of physics apply to, everything, from nuclear submarines to our BIG YELLOW SCHOOL BUSES. Generally accepted safety principles (GASP) in this case being 3-point seat belts are missing, from our buses. A glaring issue I see in the safety of our children related to school is that this basic safety system is missing.

Since my daughter was 5 years old and said, dad, it's not fair that the bus driver gets a seat belt and we don't. Hard to argue with that logic. I couldn't, so I drove/drive my kids to every field trip and most every sporting event they participate in since. 10+years.

Seems like the (Sturgeon Bay schools) contract transportation provider selectively agrees with my daughter/me. School buses - NO! Motorcoaches - OK.

The top bullet point on the back of their motorcoaches is 3 point seatbelts in every seat. 

Let's ACT on this but NOT AFTER THE FACT.

Yet here we are 10 years later and our buses without (GASP) are being used, not just in town, but to transport children at 70 mph on the highway unrestrained. Note: Since my girls have been in school I have personally transported them to all events outside of our city limits.

School Buses - Rollovers 37-sec demo video, the laws of physics visual

https://youtu.be/V3LAw6AU5wg

Please take 24 minutes to watch this '60 Minutes' style show from the Fifth Estate here https://youtu.be/jjB7XErJ4_A

In addition to the non-sensical information about 'why no seat belts' the show exposes,  they talk to the two fathers who, after the fact, got bus seat belts laws passed in Texas. In a simple bus rollover, one daughter broke her neck the other father's daughter, was killed. I spoke with the company that helped them get the seat belt law passed in Texas. God bless them. 

Again, let's ACT - NOT AFTER THE FACT.

But, but, but the money that it would cost. If you want to be in the transportation business (if I was on the board) this would be a basic requirement just to bid on the contract for our school. We supported the last referendum for 17$ million, which still didn't exactly position our schools for the future but they are better.  How about all that money spent on sports, 2 football fields? Yet GASP systems are non-existent here. What if flashing red lights, brakes, strobe lights or windows were options? Makes about as much sense. 

A Cattle truck & trailer tips over, yes, tips over from a standing position, and 9 of the 38 cattle on board died. "Police said the driver of a loaded cattle hauler pulled onto the shoulder of the on-ramp to stop. The shoulder was soft and the tractor-trailer began to slide down the embankment. The driver, a 61-year-old man, was unable to correct the tractor-trailer and it tipped over onto its side."

No further explanation needed. https://wpde.com/news/nation-world/nine-cows-die-after-cattle-hauler-tips-over-in-wisconsin-dodge-county-chester-holsteins-cattle-animals-killed-crash-waupun-police-department

Some bullet points of additional information included.

* NHTSA now endorses seat belts on all buses
* Crash stats
* States Requiring Seat Belts On School Buses
* A company that does the retrofits, installing innovative, affordable 3-point seat belts that don't reduce the seating capacity. 
* 1959 Volvo invented 3-point seatbelts. ( I sent a letter to the Sturgeon Bay School Board and Admin on the 60th anniversary (2019) of the innovation that Volvo allowed all OEMs to use without compensation.)
*Conditioning kids that seat belts aren't important.

School Bus safety stats™

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/school-bus/

Bus crash Sept 2019 School bus driver dead, eight children injured in Mississippi rollover

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/school-bus-driver-dead-least-7-children-injured-mississippi-rollover-n1051991

Bus Safety Company retrofits buses with 3-point seat belts. The leader in the country.

IMMI Corporate Offices 

https://www.imminet.com/industries/school-bus/school-bus-safeguard/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThBAFND05ds

https://www.imminet.com/contact/

http://stnonline.com/seat-belt-faqs

 

NHTSA now endorses seat belts on all buses

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nhtsa-administrator-endorses-seat-belts-school-buses-n460031

http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/259662-feds-recommending-seat-belts-for-school-buses

https://www.imminet.com/industries/school-bus/school-bus-safeguard/

https://www.imminet.com/products/school-bus-base-seats-flex-seats/

https://www.imminet.com/products/school-bus-integrated-child-seats/

Safe Enough

https://www.montanapbs.org/programs/SafeEnough/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aviation-safety/2017-safest-year-on-record-for-commercial-passenger-air-travel-groups-idUSKBN1EQ17L

https://tfldevgoteam.slack.com/messages/CF80HJXB3/

Driving skills/actions for life  

Click it or ticket. Teaching our kids since birth that (because of the law of physics even though it’s complicated trust us) we as older humans determined through trial and error that it is much safer to strap them in a properly attached car seat. And as they get older and can set up right either 5 pt. or 3 pt. car seats/boosters. As parents, we diligently buckle them in and check them every time before trips. 

Now enter an observant 4-year-old 2015 - Dad you said we have to wear our seat belts every time we're in our car or grandma’s car, how come they are not on the bus. That 5 year old repeated a version of this to me at the beginning of this year. She said something like, “the driver gets a seatbelt it’s not fair that the kids don’t”.  Our buses don’t have seatbelts. I get the law of ‘averages’, the physics - big heavy bus gets in a relatively low-speed crash in town at 25 mph or so the bus wins the ‘padded’ crash zones between seats with minimal damage to the kids. (I was only in one bus crash as a kid and the bus won that one.) This system was designed in about 1972 with the help of ‘Harvard or Yale’.  What happens in a rollover, maybe a tire blowout (only about 70,000 crashes a year happen because of blowouts), a driver dips a tire over the edge into a soft shoulder, our whole region is filled with uncontrolled intersections, I could go on but we all know why mandatory seat belts were made into a law in 19….. Even if one (an adult) chooses not to wear them they are still in the vehicle. But our school district has buses without any seat belts in them except for one (microbus). 

Kids are not statics.

NHTSA now endorses seat belts on all buses

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nhtsa-administrator-endorses-seat-belts-school-buses-n460031

http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/259662-feds-recommending-seat-belts-for-school-buses

Bus 3-point seatbelt article.

2015 https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/immi-prepared-for-widespread-school-bus-belts

Drunken bus driver https://www.fox5dc.com/news/drunken-school-bus-driver-charged-with-dwi-after-crash-with-dcps-students

Again from 2015 

https://stnonline.com/news/seat-belt-faqs/

 

Crash stats one https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/school-bus/

63,000 bus crashes a year

https://www.kreegerlaw.com/how-likely-is-a-bus-crash/

Fairly recent Door County bus crashes

https://journalistsresource.org/economics/bus-crashes-united-states-what-does-research-say/

STATES REQUIRING SEAT BELTS ON SCHOOL BUSES https://www.cga.ct.gov/2016/rpt/2016-R-0318.htm

The Man Who Saved A Million Lives. In 1959 Volvo invented and gave away the patent (free to use) for 3-point seat belts. Too important to hoard. https://www.arnoldclark.com/newsroom/265-why-volvo-gave-away-the-patent-for-their-most-important-invention

I was told the buses were ordered without seat belts to save money. The 3 pt. belt option is/was about $12K a bus. Spread over the 13 ~ 14-year life of the bus about $3 a day.

Retrofit bench seats with 3 pts. Seat belts are about $12k , again over the life of a bus about $3 a day.

How much does it cost to mow two football fields st our high school 3x a week? What about all the other associated maintenance? 

The School District, the transportation contractor…. Are in the transportation business, it obvious safety is not a priority if the buses aren’t even equipped with long-established safety system, and ones that are law in every other form of road machine. Invented in 1959, IP offered free.

If our school system wants to transport, we expect it to be the safest way possible on the highway. I expect to see our district buses equipped with seats with 3pt. Seat belts by the start of the 2017 (now I'm hoping for 2023) school year. 

Just because the lawmakers decided to leave buses off the law of being required that doesn’t make it right, or more importantly as safe as they can be.  

Fit drivers is a whole other category, Pilots can fly to how old? Pilots take medical exams to fly. Pilots have a co-pilot and software (autopilot) that can land the plane. Pilots can fly how many hours a day? I bet it's not 18.

Interviewing motorcoach drivers who was driving leaf peppers up here in 2016, he showed me the advanced safety feature his coach had, driver alert system (seat shakers), lane deviation alert systems and more. Yet, we are transporting our children with retrograde equipment.

This is solvable quickly. 

Best regards, Perry

I was in a bus crash right here in Door County as a kid.

If you would love to use your resources to help alleviate the funding conundrum related to this issue please reach out to me, or Sturgeon Bay's Superintendent or both. (Or know someone who might, please share) Thank you for your time and consideration.