284
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

An elementary student was killed and 23 other students were injured – including one with life-threatening injuries – after their school bus was hit by a minivan and overturned on the first day of school.

The accident occurred on state Route 41 in German Township, Ohio, on Tuesday morning, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a news release.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] ChimaericDesire@lemmynsfw.com 24 points 1 year ago

Do you know why?

Full shoulder belts are impractical in full sized school busses, and lap belts have proven to be as harmful as they are helpful. Smaller van-type busses are typically equipped with shoulder belts now, because they are smaller and occupants are more likely to be ejected from a seat in an impact.

Full size busses are designed to prevent this, and are quite safe. Seat belts have been used in full sized busses in the past, and they were found to be more likely to cause harm by either entrapping a passenger or causing direct damage to the hips, upper legs, lower spine, and abdominal organs. Seat belt entrapment has been considered as a possible factor in the deaths of passengers killed in busses that caught fire.

This is still very much a controversial topic. There are certainly instances where seatbelts may have prevented deaths and injuries, but by and large, school busses are one of the safest modes of transportation on the road in the United States. Numerous studies have been done on this subject. Almost any time a bus accident happens that gets significant coverage, people start demanding answers about "why didn't that bus have any seatbelts?", and the results are pretty much the same every time: because in the long run, they don't improve anything. Everything else about a school bus is designed to protect the occupants.

I recommend really looking into this subject yourself. It seems counterintuitive, but when you see the data for yourself, it makes sense.

[-] Hotdogman@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

https://www.ntsb.gov/Advocacy/safety-topics/Pages/schoolbuses.aspx

NTSB seems to think seatbelts would be an upgrade to just having compartmentalization and provide children with better internal safety. Thanks for making me look into it!

[-] yata@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sounds more like a lot of effort went into fabricating excuses to not make that expense, excuses which are directly contradicted by the National Transportation Safety Board:

School buses use a unique technology called compartmentalization—a passive occupant protection system to protect children in crash. School bus seats are made with an energy-absorbing steel inner structure and high, padded seat backs, and are secured to the school bus floor. Students are protected within the seating compartment much like eggs in a carton. Through our crash investigations, we have found that, compartmentalization alone is not enough to prevent all injuries and that for some of the children involved, a seat belt could have lessened their injuries or even saved their lives.

As a result of our school bus crash investigations, we believe—and have recommended—that, when investing in new school buses, the purchased vehicles should provide children with the best protection available, which includes lap/shoulder seat belts.

this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
284 points (99.3% liked)

News

23259 readers
2891 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS