Seat Belts in Buses for All School Pupils

Ards Borough Council recently asked North Down Borough Council for their support in calling for seat belts to be fitted on all buses carrying school pupils.

I fully agree and if you think of it, and you had anyone let alone a child travelling in your car and they had not put their seat belts on – you would probably be fined. Why should bus companies not have similar legislation? If a car crashes up to 4 people would be injured if a bus crashes approximately 50 odd people could be injured. Pupils can at times be seen standing, as the buses are so crowded.

This is something which cannot be ignored and has been shelved much too often simply because there were not the funds to implement such a scheme.

The time has come when, in the interests of child safety legislation be changed to require all school buses be fitted with seat belts, which means only children sitting on a seat and belted must be provided by the Government to enable these changes to be implemented without affecting Education Board budgets.
The funding given by the Department of Education to the area Boards does not take into consideration seat belts for children.