BUSES NEED SEAT BELTS. How can anyone truly argue that a lap belt on a bus isn’t a required safety feature? They are cheap, inexpensive to install, and prevent injuries and death. Again and again I see bus crashes where seat belts are not installed and passengers are needlessly injured and killed.

Recently a Kentucky school bus crashed, turning over in the process. There was a reported brain injury, broken bones, and other injuries. Merely having a lap belt would have more than likely prevented the vast majority of these injuries. I have blogged about the need for sea belts previously, most recently here, here, and here.

Recently, the federal government closed down several bus companies as unsafe. In fact the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued shutdown orders in just ONE DAY last month that declared 26 bus related companies, in six states, hazardous to the safety of the public. The shut down bus companies were based out of Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

The Kentucky crash involved a bus operated by New Image Travel of Evansville, Ind., for WorldStrides. It appears the legal name of the bus company is: SOUTHWESTERN ILLINOIS BUS COMPANY, LLC II with its DOT #1302646.