“Click it or ticket it”! You might see this sign while driving along the road. It is a fact that seat belts save lives, so why don’t students on school buses need to wear seatbelts? Even though school buses are safer than cars, students should have to wear seat belts on school buses. It is worth the extra money to keep students safe.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), students are about 70 times safer when taking a bus to school than a car. That’s because there are many laws that makers of school buses have to follow. These laws keep school buses safer and protect students from being hurt in a crash.

Those against seatbelts on school buses argue that the requirements are enough to keep kids safe. Installing seat belts would not only cost a lot of money, but it would reduce how many students can ride on a school bus because each rider would need to be belted in. They argue that school buses are safe enough and installing seatbelts isn’t worth the extra money.

Those in favor of seatbelt laws argue that it is worth the additional money to install the seatbelts. Seatbelts help keep students in their seats, which creates less distraction for the driver. When the driver is less distracted, he is able to focus on the road, keeping kids safer.

In addition, seatbelts on school buses sends the message to children that they

should wear a seatbelt every time they are in a vehicle. Seat belt use is lowest among the teenage age group. By requiring students to wear seat belts on buses, it can become a habit and they will be more likely to wear a seatbelt in cars.

While only six states have laws that require school buses to have seat belts, more states are thinking about adding them. While it will cost states and schools money to install them and school buses are safer than cars, it is important that we do everything we can to protect children that ride school buses and this means making them as safe as possible by installing seat belts.

Source: Should School Bus Riders Have to ‘Click It’?
By Exploros, CC BY-SA 4.0; Illustration by Annagris/Bigstockphoto.com