“When our children’s safety is at stake, it’s not the time to be pinching pennies and praying disaster will never strike.”
Today, the Longmont Times-Call printed an editorial in favor of my bill that will require seatbelts on school buses. They make a good case and help explain why I’m carrying the bill. See full article below.
Change state law to put seatbelts on school buses
Longmont Times-Call
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Three elementary school students suffered minor injuries last week when the school bus they were riding in was involved in a head-on crash in Erie that sent the bus into a ditch.
Would everyone have been OK if all of the kids had been wearing seatbelts? That’s impossible to say, but it goes to the heart of a debate in Colorado over Senate Bill 29, which would require seatbelts in all new school buses beginning next year.
Proponents say it’s a simple matter of safety: Seatbelts save lives and the extra money to outfit new buses with the safety devices is worth every penny if it saves even one child’s life.
Opponents point to the face that it’s been 20 years since a child died in a school bus accident in Colorado. In a time of tight budgets, they say, it’s not wise to force school districts to spend extra money on something that isn’t necessary.
The fact that only one school bus death has been recorded in Colorado since 1989 is not sufficient justification for opposing this worthy idea. And it’s not evidence that school buses are safer than any other motor vehicle. Chances are, we have simply been lucky here in Colorado.
This is a chance for our Legislature to be proactive, to see the potential for a deadly situation and act now to avert it before it occurs.
If a school bus were to veer off the road and start rolling down a long embankment, students would be thrown from their seats like rag dolls. We have seen enough casino bus crashes to know how deadly this situation can be. Seatbelts would most certainly improve their chances to escape death or serious injury.
And there’s also the mixed message we are sending our children.
Every time kids climb into a car, we are required by law to strap them in.
Yet every day, thousands and thousands of children head off to Colorado schools in buses without seatbelts. Given that, how can we expect them to do the right thing when they are old enough to start climbing into vehicles without parental supervision?
We encourage the Legislature to pass Senate Bill 29. When our children’s safety is at stake, it’s not the time to be pinching pennies and praying disaster will never strike.
Posted by SenatorShaffer in Blog, Colorado Kids, Transportation []