Investigation continues into fatal school bus crash

Does anyone know if the bus had seatbelts for students?? In my state of Arkansas the police write seatbelt tickets as a fundraiser while the school buses have none. They tell us the buses are safer than cars and the cost would be too much to install them. I never understood how they are able to sell buses without seatbelts.

Wisconsin is going through the same issue with seatbelts. Unfortunately it may take a tragedy like this to get some support for seatbelts.

My thoughts and prayers are with Cottonwood.

fred...
I believe here in mn seatbelts aren't required on school buses. I guess it is figured if a bus is involved in an accident the high profile seats and padding should provide a "compartment" to contain the rider.
My thought...there are all kinds of accident scenarios, low impact to serious, like the one that caused the bus in this article to end up on its side.
School buses or any vehicle that sit higher than a car appear safer. But given the right situation and seriousness of impact, serious injury or fatalities will occur.
It is odd how some people walk away virtually unscathed from serious accidents and some don't.
Or, a minor accident where you would think the injuries would be minor are not.

I would believe that it would take a vehicle traveling at a relatively high speed to knock a bus over. My impression is that there is a stop sign that may have been run.

What a sad, sad story.

I doubt they had seatbelts Fred; most don't. I have heard some research indicates that seatbelts on bus seats do not help. Whether that is true or not, who knows?

Putting seatbelts on busses is a fine idea, but anyone who rests comfortably in the knowledge that seatbelts will be answer is naive in believing that they will be USED by the kids. It would be hit or miss at best, with no guarantees that the kids who do put them on would leave them on until it is time for them to get off. It’s a good option to have available if they are as safe as I would assume they would be, but don't assume that will prevent such tragedies from occurring again, especially since no one can guarantee the kids would buckle up.

This is so sad, my kids will go to school next year and it scares me to death to put them on a bus after all the accidents that happen so far and this is by far the worst because there were deaths involved. I think we need to make the bus a safer ride and look into whatever we have to do to make safe SAFE, and as for the seat belts being to expensive there is no amount on lives especially little childeren if seat belts will make a bus safer than seatbelts should be installed. My prayers to the family.

Our hearts go out to the families and friends of everyone involved.
God bless and comfort you at this extremely difficult time.

It's really sad to see four innocent students die in a crash and still so many students injured. Wishing all the blessings to the parents of each and every one of these students.
-God Bless

Seat belts will save kids lives if the SCHOOL BOARD would maybe THINK just a little harder & look in the past when buses get into accidents are the school board members on that bus..? I didn't THINK SO...

Wake up members of the school board :

PASS A FRICKEN LAW THAT HAS SEATBELTS ON SCHOOL BUSES !!!!!!!!!( for the kids of the future )

PS FREEDOM Lover IN THE HOUSE..Hello there....(:

Geez, how sad this all is..........I wonder how fast that driver was going??

I would like to know why seat belts are not manditory on school buses? It must be because of the cost. other than that, I can see no reason not to have them. All children nowadays are acustomed to 'buckling up' so it should not be a problem IF the buses had seat belts.

It's the things like this that the city(s) or state(s) should of already thought about. Now after this fatal accident happened they are going to think about what kind of safety they need to put on the buses. The politics don't care about other citizens childrens' safety but their own.
But when a communtiy comes together and attacks the politics---what the community wants they are going to get.

Why no mention of what happened to the drivers of the van and the pick-up? Were they injured? They're all people, regardless of age.

State Patrol website just said that the drivers of the van, and truck were ok.

The pilot doesn't take off until all the seatbelts are fastened on the plane. Why not a school bus with our kids in it? The car beeps if the seatbelts aren't fastened in the vehicle, why not the school bus? We need a seatblet law for school buses. I think the kids will buckle up, and if they don't the bus doesn't go.

http://www.ncsbs.org/testimonies/seat_belt_ba...

a brief history on safety belts on school buses

God bless the parents of the children that were so trag. lost in this crash. As a parent myself, I could never imagine the pain of having to lose a child at such a young age....my heart and greatest sympathy goes out for them.

I have always thought that there should be seatbelts on a bus. When I was a school bus rider back in the day....and we had the school bus saftey drills, they said that seatbelts weren't necessary, because the bus is so big, and the seats behind us and in front of us were our protectors. I hope they will change the law now.

The worst thing we can do is go off half-cocked. We (apparently) have studies that may indicate seatbelts in busses are not as safe as one would assume they would be. We use them in most other forms of transportation, and I don’t know why seatbelts would not be beneficial, but I don’t claim to know for certain. So before we start advocating for “something”, let's make darn sure we’re advocating for the right thing!“Feel good” advocacy for having “done something” is worth nothing, if it turns out that what was done was the WRONG thing.

First, let's actually LEARN what is safer in school bus applications, and then apply it. If seatbelts are safer, then retrofit them; it CAN NOT be that expensive. From that point forward, only purchase new busses that come with seatbelts. First problem addressed.

But as noted earlier, this is not a panacea and some people are foolish enough to believe that kids will naturally buckle up, because as one poster above claimed, "All children nowadays are accustomed to 'buckling up'". Kids have been accustomed to buckling up for decades. Kids are no more likely to buckle up these days than in years past, so in order to insure seatbelt use, the kids will have to be instructed and monitored more closely.

Otherwise go with your faith, install the seatbelts and breath a sigh of relief if you want, that's easy. But all the school bus seatbelts in the world are of no use if the kids don’t buckle up and get into an accident; and I for one don’t believe that the majority of kids will buckle up for the ride if given the opportunity not to.