CLARK COUNTY, Ohio — Seat belts in school buses? It’s the question on some people’s minds again after a fatal school bus crash in Clark County left one child dead and sent several others to area hospitals.
As of 2023, there are nine states that have some sort of seat belt requirement for passengers on school buses: Arkansas, California, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Texas.
Ohio lawmakers have proposed similar legislation in the past, but it has never been able to gain enough popularity among lawmakers to become law. The state has also tried to increase penalties for driving infractions around school buses and school zones for several years to no avail.
There were more than 1,000 fatal school bus crashes nationwide between 2011 and 2020. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the best way to reduce fatal crashes was to add seat belts to school buses.
In the state of Ohio, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported 6,089 crashes involving school buses from 2018 to 2023. Troopers also issued more than 16,000 citations for drivers disobeying traffic laws around school buses and school zones during that time. Current state law requires drivers to come to a stop at least 10 feet behind or in front of a stopped school bus with its lights on. Drivers can’t start moving again until the bus starts moving.
10TV reached out to Senator Sherrod Brown’s office following Tuesday’s crash. Senator Brown was integral in the NTSB’s directive requiring seat belts on motorcoaches in 2013. That came about following the Bluffton University charter bus crash in 2007 that left seven people dead.
“What happened yesterday in Clark County is heartbreaking. We must do everything we can to make sure our students are safe when they ride the school bus – and I will continue to be vigilant by working to pass into law additional school bus safety measures. That starts with equipping buses with seat belts, a common-sense safety measure to protect kids that is long overdue,” said Senator Brown.
Tim Berta miraculously survived that 2007 bus crash and 15 years later, Tuesday’s bus crash brings back memories of what he went through.
“My heart goes out to them. I've been there and I know what it feels like and I just…can't... each individual experience is different and unique. Coming from where I came from, that's got to be tough,” said Berta.
He said seatbelts seem like the easy solution, but it’s more challenging than that.
"Seat belts make things safer, but I don't know. How would you enforce that? Good luck getting 30 kids to put on seat belts and keep them on. I don't know how that would happen," he said.
Some of the concern about requiring seat belts in school buses is the cost. It could cost upwards of $11,000 per school bus.
Current safety laws require school buses in the state of Ohio to be inspected by the Ohio State Highway Patrol twice per year: once before the beginning of the school year and then once at random during the school year.