Black Monday in Alabama

Yesterday — Monday — was a bad day in Huntsville, AL, where I live. You probably read about it. A school bus with about 45 teen students aboard plunged off of the interstate and fell 30 feet nose first. To date, there are three fatalities, multiple injuries, and a stunned community. This bus — like most school buses — had no seatbelts. In fact, this accident may be the straw that finally ends that disgraceful practice. In the meantime, you should hear the silly reasons cited as to why school buses don’t have/need seat belts. I thought we settled most of the pros and cons of seatbelts back in the 1950s, but, when it comes to the school buses that carry our children, the arguments are alive and well 50 years later. The most-cited argument is that school buses have such a good safety record that they obviously don’t need seat belts. Hogwash! You might say the same thing about the airlines, but we are still required to wear seatbelts on board, and rightly so. It has been proved over and again to my complete satisfaction that any means of transportation (with the possible exception of bikes) is safer with seatbelts. Others say that the buses cannot be fitted with shoulder belts, and that seat belts alone wouldn’t do much good. Horse pucky. Again I hold the airlines up as an example. We PAX wear them. Should we quit? Other arguments sound as silly as they did in the 1950s — the belt might trap you in the bus. A belt can hurt you. Actually, those arguments sound sillier now than they did in the 1950s, because back then we didn’t know but what they were true. Now we have known better for decades. Sadly, enough, it seems that the real reason belts aren’t required on school buses is simple economics, that — as my mother would say — is downright sinful. Seatbelts even on school buses? No, seatbelts especially on school buses. We'd love to post your comments. Please click the comment box at the top.