State Rep. pushes for school bus seat belts; Calls TN crash a ‘wake up call’

Republican State Rep. Bobby Nardolillo is pushing for seat belts to become mandatory on all new school buses in Rhode Island. He’s speaking out following the horrifying school bus crash in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Monday  that left five children dead and many more fighting for their lives in the ICU.

"It’s definitely a wake up call,” said Nardolillo.

The Coventry lawmaker plans to introduce legislation on seat belts for school buses for a third time this legislative session. He says Rhode Islander’s should act pro-actively before tragedy strikes here.

"My children are 13 and 11. They ride the bus every day. We are transporting them to the bus stops in our cars, they are seat belted in. We are asking them to put their seat belts on before the car even moves. And, then we put them on the bus and it’s just the potential of injury that could happen,” said Nardolillo.

ABA Teamsters Local Union Number 251, which represents many school bus drivers, monitors and aides in the state, issued a statement to ABC 6 News saying they’re opposed to the legislation Nardolillo is sponsoring.

Among the reasons why; in cases of emergency it could take longer to evacuate children, the issue of compliance, the cost and that fact that less children would be able to fit on buses because only 2 kids would be able to fit in a seat as opposed to 3.

"On the surface, it seems like a common sense concept. Who would be against a safety measure for school children?  But the implementation of the concept uncovers a hidden reality which in many cases, flies directly in the face of the very reasoning for wanting to mandate them in the first place,” said Nick Williams.

The NTSB does support the notion that seat belts on school buses could save lives. Their stance is that all new buses should consider installing them.

"The seat belts are an enhancement for certain types of crashes. School buses are already designed to provide a high level of safety especially for frontal type collisions,” said Thomas Barth a Senior Survival Factors Investigator and Auto mechanics engineer for the NTSB. “But, in roll over type collisions our investigations have shown that when a student can be ejected out of the seating compartment or out of the bus that a restraint is beneficial."

(C) WLNE 2016