Seat Belts on the School Bus

[DavidUK]

My 12 yr old son has just admitted to me that he doesn't wear a seat belt on the school bus. He knows how important it is but none of the kids wear them and he would get teased if he did. What can I do about it?

Coach travel is very safe but I would still prefer it if the kids wore their seat belts. In the recent terrible coach crash in the news, those not wearing seat belts were thrown through the windows and dragged along the road resulting in serious injury or death. Also, there is the case mentioned in the AB in http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question35 0798.html . But - it's not "cool" to worry about things like that!

[boro1986]

This is a tricky one you want your son to be safe but do you want him to get bullied. You know how nasty children can be and he is at that age which i believe will make or break what he is like and how he is reguarded for the rest of his life

[DavidUK]

Yes boro, I agree. There is no chance he is going to be the only one to wear a seat belt.

[Panic Button]

Did you wear a seat belt on the bus when you were a kid?

He's going to be subject to much greater risks in life than being unrestrained on a school bus.

Let it go

[boro1986]

All you can say David is tell him you would prefer he wore a seatbelt and leave it at that he will make his own mind up. I guarentee peer pressure dictates he wont but i believe you have done what you can

[whiskeysheri]

Maybe you could call the bus/coach company and ask that the driver on that particular route has a nice, but firm, word with them all when they get on? That they MUST wear their seat belts or the company will have to phone their parents?

x

[Panic Button]

The coach crash that worried you was a double deck coach on a London Aberdeen run, speeding on a motorway slip road.

Any accident that a school bus on the school run is likely to be involved would not be anything like that. Seat belts are unlikely to have much effect anyway.

You have made your feelings known to him. I recommend you preserve your relationship with him so that you can make a stand in the future about something more important.

[noxlumos]

David he's 12, you have to let him make his own mind up about this, it's unenforceable. With kids his age he'd get bullied unmercifully like as not if he wore one so he chooses what to him is the lesser of two evils and doesn't.
Pick your battles with teens, and only engage when you can win, this one you can't so leave it alone.

[smudge]

I was going to suggest the same as whiskeysheri -that way, the children wouldn't need to know who phoned the bus/coach company.

[Panic Button]

I don't suppose they'd take much notice of the bus driver either - if he agreed to do anything

[DavidUK]

Thanks for all your replies. I have no intention of trying to persuade him to be the only one to wear a seat belt. Perhaps the bus company could do more as whiskeysheri & smudge suggested. A few weeks ago, another school bus going to my son's school had a little bump and a lad who had been standing up was injured. The bus company has suspended the driver pending an investigation!

Isn't there a law now that everyone 14 and over is legally required to wear a seat belt on a coach?

I wondered if it was worth writing to the headmaster to see if he could get the police etc. to give some talks at the school about this.

[smudge]

Even though some of you think that at 12 years old, the kids are old enough to make up their own minds about wearing seat belts & that they probably wouldn't take any notice of the bus driver either - I was going to suggest that perhaps the bus driver could say he was not going to drive off until everyone had belted up - literally!

You know, a bit like on an aircraft!!!!

Trouble is, it would be far too time consuming for one person to check & the kids would probably undo them after 'take off' anyway!

P'raps they should be shown video's of the consequences of not wearing a seat belt - that might do the trick!

[##Wardy##]

how about going to rotten.com or ogrish.com and printing some pictures of decapitated road victims. Give them to your son for him to show the potential bullies.

[Panic Button]

Oh yeah Wardy, search your gruesome sight for 'horrendous injuries to kids on school bus'.
Bet you won't find many

[##Wardy##]

Heres a bus crash film from the news. It is not gruesome.

http://ebaumsworld.com/2006/07/buscrash.html

[smudge]

I've seen that clip before on TV Wardy & it's just the kind of thing I was talking about earlier.

It could be shown to kids who use buses & coaches as it's not too gory & gets the point over.

Anyone sniggering or laughing at it , could then be shown more graphic footage in colour, the rest speaks for itself!

[joko]

this might sound daft, but it may work - you can buy seat belt covers for cars - a kind of tube of fabric that you wrap round with velcro.
well you can get ones with foot ball teams etc on, so perhaps if he - and his mates - had these on the seats they may put them on...?

perhaps the school may fit them permanently...?

or he could sell them to his mates, so they all feel in a bit of a club...

there may be a way round it...

... just a thought...