By: Hailey Middleton
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) — The Fayetteville public school district is working on making seat belts standard in large school buses.
The transportation department has been installing seat belts in their buses since 2016. When the Fayetteville superintendent approved the purchase he mandated that all new buses would have seat belts installed.
After superintendent Colbert mandated that all new buses will have seat belts, the state legislature passed a law stating that if the public of each individual city wants their school district to mandate seat belts they will have to petition the school board to follow the law;
Requiring over 10 percent of the public to sign the petition into law.
“It would be a situation where they choose to do it like we did, it’s a voluntary thing.” Mike Mclure, Fayetteville public school district transportation director said.
The district currently transports between 2,700 to 3,800 students a day, while only 22 of their 70 buses have seat belts installed. While back at the beginning of the school year the students taking the buses were cut in half because of online schooling due to COVID-19.
Every time the district purchases a new bus seat belts are installed before the first drive with students.
The buses are purchased with undercarriage storage, air conditioning, and a camera system, while the seatbelts are installed after for a fee of about $10k per bus.
Fayetteville is currently the only district in Arkansas working on making safety restraints the new normal of school buses. Making seat belts standard in Fayetteville will cost the district $160,000.
Although the schools have not required seat belts on school buses Mike Mclure says, “School buses are 18 times safer than parents driving their children to school, and the seat belts just add an additional safety feature for the students and parents.”
The seat belts being installed are three point lap shoulder harnesses similar to ones in our own vehicles.