WASHINGTON
Smaller school buses will have to be equipped with lap-and-shoulder seat belts for the first time, and larger buses will have higher seat backs under a government rule announced yesterday.
The seat belts will have to be installed only in new buses weighing 5 tons or less, and the requirement will not take effect until 2011. These smaller school buses are already required to have lap belts, but not the safer, harness-style belts. There is no seat-belt requirement for larger buses.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said she stopped short of requiring seat belts for larger buses because that could limit the number of children who can squeeze into seats, causing some children to travel in ways that are not as safe as school buses.
School districts sometimes expect up to three younger children to share a bus seat, but if there are only two belts installed per seat, then fewer children can ride.
Schools buy about 2,500 of the smaller school buses each year, the Transportation Department said. The buses seat 16 to 20 children. Larger buses carry more than 50.
The new rule includes a performance standard for seat belts on new, larger buses so that schools that want to add belts will have guidance on which belts are best, Peters said.
The Transportation Department estimates that it will cost about $6.1 million a year to equip new, smaller buses with the three-point seat belts and higher seat backs, and $3.6 million a year to equip new, larger buses with higher seat backs.
The rule increases the required height of seat backs on new buses to 24 inches, up from the current 20 inches. Higher seat backs will help keep children from being thrown over seats in a wreck, Peters said.
The rule will be phased in beginning in 2009 and become fully effective in 2011.
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