Kirton campaigns for school bus seatbelts

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 670, 21 January 1997, Page 12

Kirton campaigns for school bus seatbelts

School children are at an unnecessary risk travelling on school buses without seatbelts," Weston Kirton, Ruapehu District mayor said last week. He says the Land Transport Safety Authority needs to implement a strategy to see that seat belts are fitted to school buses as well as on long distance public transport. "Seat restraints are accepted as basic procedure before travelling in a motor vehicle, millions of dollars have been spent promoting safety on our roads particularly promoting child re-

straints and the effects of not wearing seatbelts," said Mr Kirton. He said over 100,000 school children travel daily throughout New Zealand without any option of wearing seat constraints. "To me that is a double standard and unacceptable in this day and age," said Mr Kirton. "Parents and caregivers should not accept the attitude of the Land Transport Safety Authority and the Bus and Coach Association so far, where they talk about low risks and only minor accidents. The facts are that 31 pupils were injured in one accident alone

last year and there were 16 bus crashes on ministry contracted services in New Zealand last year. How many accidents, deaths and injuries do we have to have before we realise many could be avoided if passengers were restrained?" He claims there are many reasons why buses are more vulnerable to accidents than before: there is more heavy traffic on New Zealand roads — 23% of all traffic accidents involve heavy traffic; generally there is more traffic on the roads travelling faster. "Overseas experience has shown that where bus

passengers have worn seatbelts, less injuries have resulted." Mr Kirton believes there will be reluctance from the Ministry of Education and the transport industry to support such a move because of costs. "Funding needs to be considered alongside the risks to children travelling on buses without seatbelts. New Zealanders should take the opportunity to promote seatbelts on buses and this in turn will resolve the issue of overcrowding when the soon to be released draft policy document by the

Land Transport Safety Authority is out for public consideration."