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Simon Rogers / RNZ
A mother is asking for seat belts on school buses after multiple crashes, including one involving a bus from Otamatea High School (pictured) in Northland, last year.
This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is being republished with permission.
A mother of two says that children riding school buses in rural areas without seat belts is a fatal accident that is about to happen.
Two children were seriously injured and six others suffered minor injuries after a school bus crashed near Murchison this week.
Murchison-area school principal Andy Ashworth said the bus was taking the children home when the accident occurred and was in an area with poor signal.
RNZ / Robin Martin
The cordon near the site of the school bus accident in Taranaki.
Last week, four students at the school were injured after two buses crashed in Christchurch.
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St John’s Clinical Director Dr. Tony Smith said ambulance officers were often the first to arrive and see firsthand the devastating impact of crashes, especially when passengers were not wearing seat belts.
“Our view that seat belts on buses of an agreed definition should be mandatory remains unchanged; we believe that seat belts should be used to prevent death and serious injury, including fractured and amputated limbs.”
In 2018, St John urged the government to make seatbelt use mandatory on some bus services after two people were killed and many others injured in a series of accidents, but the calls fell on deaf ears.
Supplied
St John’s clinical director Dr. Tony Smith says seat belts on buses, by an agreed definition, should be mandatory.
In 2011, 35 students were injured when a logging truck crashed into the back of a school bus in the Bay of Plenty. Later, Transportation Minister Steven Joyce said he needed more information about the accident before considering whether seat belts might be necessary on buses.
The Transport Ministry said buses were not required to wear seat belts because the buses were much safer than any other mode of road transport.
Mobility and Safety Manager Helen White said that approximately 100,000 children in New Zealand traveled to school on the ministry-funded bus services every school day.
Traveling to school by bus is much safer for children than traveling to school by car.
“A 2015 NZTA report found that car and truck passengers are seven times more likely than bus passengers to be killed or injured in an accident.”
Supplied
A school bus accident on State Highway 65 near Murchison earlier this month left eight children injured.
White said that while seat belts were not required for buses, more and more new buses used for long-distance and tourist services were equipped with seat belts.
Waitaki Valley resident Pip Cameron, who lives on a farm in Otematata, said his oldest daughter started going to school a couple of years ago and when he asked the local bus company if there were seat belts on the school bus , the answer was no.
His daughters go to school in Kurow 30 kilometers down State Highway 83.
“My oldest daughter was not the legal height to be in a car without a booster seat, so I was wondering how she was able to sit in a bus seat, much less without a seat belt.
“Until we can see a change, I do not feel comfortable allowing my children to be on a huge bus without a safety restriction going 80 km / hour on rural roads where there are always big trucks and milk tankers speeding by” .
ALDEN WILLIAMS / THINGS
Selwyn Deputy Mayor Malcolm Lyall discusses how students living in Prebbleton have to pay more to take the bus to Lincoln High than if they went to school in Christchurch.
Cameron took his girls to school every day and said he would continue to do so until changes were made.
Hearing that more children have been injured in bus accidents this week was heartbreaking for Cameron, who has been campaigning for seatbelts on buses for more than a year.
“Do we have to wait for another death for people to take this seriously? Nobody likes to hear about a child dying on our roads.”
“I wrote to the prime minister, the local parliamentarians, the transport minister and the ministry, but I only received generic responses saying that not much is going to happen.”
He said his family was not the only one concerned.
“I think when the ministry talks about children being safer in buses than in cars, they are talking about our cities where buses travel between 40 and 50 km / h with lights and more traffic controls, not children in our country roads. two. “
This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is being republished with permission.
