Governor Riley expressed surprise that the three-year study on seat belts and school buses showed 60% of the kids not using the seat belts. He used that fact as one of the justifications for rejected a proposal to include the belts in new Alabama school buses at a cost of some $38 Million. The other reason was that it cost to much and would save only one life every eight years.
That's probably not too much if its your child who dies. The study began after four Alabama school kids in Huntsville died when a bus crashed head-first off an Interstate ramp to the ground below..
Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that he's not calling on the schools and parents and transportation departments to do their job. If the kids are required to use the belts, then enforce that requirement. I'm not suggesting that the other kind of belt be used, but come on! If we can't enforce a relatively simple rule like you will wear a seat belt the entire time you are riding on the bus, than how can we make the kids do more complex tasks like you will not beat up the bus driver. Oh yea, that.
Does all this start at home?
$38 million? Spread out over how many years?
ReplyDeleteNot true. There was not proposal to put belts on school buses. The report did not make a proposal, just reported that it doesn't make sense to spend that much money on something that is ineffective.
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