Indiana District Tests School Bus Seat Belts In Pilot Program

While the debate on how effective seat belts in school buses would be rages on, one school district is stepping up to put the belts to the test.

Westfield Washington Schools from Indiana is partnering with seating supplier IMMI for a pilot program which will add lap-shoulder belts to six of the newer buses in the district’s fleet.

Nick Verhoff, director of business and operations for Westfield Washington Schools, says the school buses will be equipped with the restraints over the summer. Next school year, the buses will run regular routes and be used for out-of-town sports and field trips, guaranteeing the buses will be operating at a variety of speeds and in differing scenarios.

Over a period of two to three years, the program will assess numerous aspects of the safety and efficacy of school bus seat belts, such as whether students keep the seat belts on and how the belts influence bus behavior.

“We want to at least have some kind of data that we have accumulated on our own that shows what seat belts can and can’t do,” Verhoff said.

Julie Cooley, IMMI’s director of marketing communications, told School Bus Fleet that the company is “very plugged into our community, and we feel very strongly about protecting kids. … Westfield is very progressive and family focused, so this partnership made sense all around.”

For the study, the school has agreed to cover the cost of the lap-shoulder seat belts, while IMMI is funding the installation labor costs. Cooley says the costs of installing the belts will be “quite sizable” because retrofitting older buses can be much more costly compared to equipping new buses with seat belts.