On February 12th, 2015, Thursday afternoon, a Montgomery County Public School Bus was involved in an accident at Silver Spring Intersection where four students were injured.

       The question that remains is, would the number of injured students be diminished if there had been seatbelts present? Our society continues to flourish and innovate every second of the day, but the absence of seat belts is a topic that is glossed over and forgotten.

      Dr.K an art teacher at Naugatuck High School feels that our world needs to be brought up to date on the awareness of the issue regarding student safety. K states, ‘’Everyone is so acclimated on violence, we need to start showing videos that show the real risks again. It would be appropriate and show the reality of car crashes. It’s a twenty first century skill…. To be acclimated.”

          Both students and teachers feel that the addition of seat belts on school buses would do more harm than good, although they are oblivious to the reasonings behind the fact that seat belts aren’t already installed. The opinion on the matter stands still even from a student’s perspective.

      Kyle Torok, a junior at Naugatuck High School does not feel that seat belts would be in the school’s best interest. “There probably should be seat belts but I don’t feel that it is necessary since I have not ever heard of a situation where seat belts were needed or could have helped,” he said.

      Even though many staff and students feel that seat belts are unnecessary, a parent’s view of the situation slightly alters. Mrs. Teixeira has the job of being a secretary at Naugatuck High School as well as a parent to three children. She offers her opinion and says, “ I think that they should have seatbelts, I think it’s silly that they don’t because if it’s a law for any other vehicles, then why doesn’t a bus filled with school children have to follow that too?”

       There are many complications in regards to not only installing seat belts, but also enforcing them to be worn. This seems like a tedious task when smaller children have to adjust to the change.          

    Alyssa Barry, a junior at Naugatuck High School states, “ Yes, we should not have seat belts. It’d be too difficult to get the children in and out. That’s what the bus driver said when I asked. The smaller buses have seat belts though and I don’t know why that would be different than normal school buses.”

    Concern is also shown when younger students are considered. Jose Sendra, a spanish teacher at Naugatuck High School and also a father, is uneasy about sending his youngest to school but accepts the fact of the matter that this would be too expensive and would entail unrealistic expectations.

     “Sounds like a no-brainer, but who’s gonna be responsible for the addition of seat belts? Will it reduce the number of seats for students? Very curious, very good question. They’re big and safe… But people with tractor trailers have to wear seat belts. I worry about my little guy for when he goes to school,” says Sendra.

     Ron Tymula General Manager of  Student Transportation of America explains the reasoning behind the absence of seatbelts on buses. He says, “The bus manufacturers have recently come out with the three point seat belts which is similar to your car which has the shoulder belt and the lap belt but the issue with that is when the seats are equipped with those type of seat belts, it reduces the seating capacity of the bus”.   

      He continues on his reasonings by also saying, “In the event where a bus were involved in a crash or there was a situation with a fire or something and the bus needed to be evacuated, there’s only one driver and a busload of students. If the students were to start panicing and in the state of panic can’t undo their seat belt, they’re gonna be trapped in the bus.”

      In the end, it seems as though there is a valid reason for there not being any seat belts on buses. Both expert such as Tymula and civilians like the high schoolers and teachers at Naugatuck High School agree that as where it might seem like a great idea in theory, to put seat belts out on the field would be more dangerous than not having them.

       However, there is still hope for future renovations to be made on school buses. Tymula assures that by stating, “The industry is still looking at the design of seat belts in the buses, especially the three point belts, which would be the lap and shoulder belts.”