School buses affect many students in their day-to-day lives and because of that, buses are built to be safe to be on roads and hold passengers, even in the case of an emergency that may be life- threatening to those on board.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, buses are continually assessed on how they can be made safer, “but has always been cautious of the unintended consequences of reducing school bus ridership.”

In a recent accident, a BPS bus carrying the East color guard was hit by a truck returning from a competition at Millard South. One student on board during the accident was sophomore Alyssa Osborn.

“We weren’t really informed of what was happening, but also,

we weren’t in immediate danger,” Osborn said.

In the past, school buses had seat belts. However, in the 2011 Denial of Petition for Rulemaking, seat belts were decided to be taken off because of the cost.

According to NHTSA, “Average incremental cost of equipping a large school bus with lap/shoulder belts without loss in capacity = $7,346 – $10,296. Greater cost to buy and operate a school bus with seat belts may reduce the number of school buses available for pupil transportation.”

Although buses do not have seat belts, they may help passengers on board feel safer. Sophomore Claire Bossman was also on the bus in the accident.

“Maybe if [seat belts] were there at least as an option, if someone wanted them for their

own comfort, because then they wouldn’t have to be as scared about it,” Bossman said.

BPS buses are checked daily before going out on their routes to ensure they are operating safely. Dave Aiken drives bus #139.

“They go through a scheduled maintenance inspection every 90 days and that’s by state mandate,” Aiken said. “So they are constantly checked to make sure everything is safe on board of all their mechanical parts.”

Passengers can also help make the drive as smooth as possible.

“Any time you’re on a bus being happy and having fun is fine,” Aiken said, “but each individual being loud… makes it very difficult for the driver to not only hear things going on the radio, but also a lot more distracting keeping an eye on the traffic in front of them.”