In Ohio, where I drive a school bus, we haven't had a fatality on a school bus (the kind of death seat belts would prevent) for over forty years.

And overall, deaths ON a school bus are very rare. And in many of those, like the Fox River Grove accident, the Carrollton Bus crash, and the Huntsville Bus Crash, seat belts might not have prevented the deaths.

Seat belts in buses can create engineering problems and discipline challenges as well. It's a lot easier and cheaper to put three seat belts in the back seat of a car than it is to put 72 in the seats of an average school bus. And it's a lot easier to get your own three kids to buckle up than it is to get 50 kids to buckle up.

Seat belts will probably be on school buses in the next 10 years, as new, less expensive belts are designed (in part due to the pressure form the Huntsville accident.) And it will be more consistent for children who are more eager to buckle up than when we were children.

But it probably won't be significantly safer.

• If seatbelts are so important, why don't they put them on school buses?
• Why don't school buses have seatbelts?
• Why don't school buses and public transit systems have seatbelts?
• Why don't school buses and public transit systems have seatbelts?
• PLZ HELP!why do buses have no seatbelts??
• Why is it that you don't have seatbelts on trains or buses?
• Why dont buses have seatbelts?
• Why dont buses have seatbelts?
• Why aren't there seat belts on school buses and city buses?
• Why aren't there seat belts on school buses and city buses?