We are in favor of seat belts...

We are in favor of seat belts in school buses. We believe this is a

good thing and should have been done many, many years ago.

JAY and ANNE GREER

Newport Beach

My youngest is 22 years old now. She has never gotten in a vehicle

without a seat belt. I can’t imagine anybody that would want their

kids riding in a school bus without them.

RICK LLOYD

Huntington Beach

I’m horrified that Newport-Mesa officials would consider a safety

measure for their students to be unnecessary. My parents always

required me to wear a seat belt, even before state law mandated it.

As a child I felt uncomfortable not having seat belts on school

buses, and I support those parents who want seat belts to protect

their children.

URSULA BOHEN

Costa Mesa

In support of the view that a new state law requiring lap-shoulder

belts in newly purchased school buses is undesirable or unnecessary,

Newport-Mesa School District spokeswoman Jane Garland cited a recent

sport-utility vehicle versus Newport-Mesa Unified School District

school bus accident and said: “The bus was so high, the car basically

did not impact anywhere where the children were seated.”

That illustration fails to deal with another major risk.

No matter how much the bus weighs or how high it stands, “school

buses are, in themselves, kind of tanks,” Garland said. Imagine the

consequences when the occupants are not restrained in place when the

“tank” or bus hits head on a utility pole or other very large object,

such as an 18 wheeler. The occupants will be thrown forward from

their seats striking their faces, necks, chests, abdomens, arms and

legs against the seats in front of each of them. We all know what

injuries would result.

If the school district replaces six or seven buses a year (the

district’s expectation based on experience), the annual expense would

be $36,000 to $42,000.

That’s a very acceptable expense to eventually bring the bus fleet

to an acceptable level of readiness to prevent serious injuries or

worse. The sooner accomplished the better.

DAVID J. STILLER

Costa Mesa

If we can’t get our children to and from school safely then what

do we gain by educating them?

Granted, the Daily Pilot question is more complex than it

originally seems, the arguments for having seat-belts predominate:

1. Just because we haven’t yet had a catastrophe doesn’t guarantee

we won’t. The odds say we ultimately will! One anecdotal positive

outcome from a local crash in 2004 does not confer invincibility or

immunity. Besides, what if the school bus is hit by another bus or

sideswiped by a train?

2. If we spend $10,000 a year per student on education and $180 to

bus them, the incremental cost to provide belts is a small percentage

of total costs.

3. Our roads grow more dangerous as the number of persons and

vehicles mount and our driving habits become more suicidal and

homicidal. The number of people driving without licenses and

insurance is increasing. The need to drive defensively and take more

precautions increases second by second.

4. Having taken a generation to teach our youth to use belts, why

ask them to ride in a school bus without them? Talk about conflicted

messages.

5. An expert from out of state told me that accidents involving

vans, super vans (“church mobiles”) and buses without seat belts can

be very severe. Lets not forget that the other vehicles in a crash

(“the crasher”) grow more humongous every month.

6. All of this commotion is irrelevant if the California state law

remains in effect.

7. If a tragedy and serious injuries with deaths were to occur on

a bus without belts, the legal costs would dwarf the relatively

minuscule belt costs. The fact that this issue had been discussed in

an open forum without making the required changes would make

Newport-Mesa and all of us more liable.

In sum, in our attempt to educate our children, it makes little

sense not to provide them the same safety features and defense

mechanisms that we require of ourselves.

MICHAEL ARNOLD GLUECK

Newport Beach

If I had children riding a bus I would definitely want them to

have a seat belt because they’d get used to using it. If they use

belts in their parents’ cars, why not on the bus? There is still the

possibility of accidents -- getting hit by a truck, another bus, the

driver having a heart attack, driver making a mistake. Nobody’s

perfect. It would keep the kids in the seat where they belong, too,

so they’re not roaming around; you know how kids are. I think it’s a

no-brainer: Yes, the kids should have seat belts on the bus.

FRED R. BOCKMILLER

Costa Mesa