There's an AP news story out today (also appeared on CNN) about NTSB not recommending seat belts on school buses. Study calls for alternative ways to reduce children's injuries.
Positives for MJXC: increases visibility of alternatives to safety belts, like SAFE-T-BAR. NTSB is calling for studies of alternatives, which MJXC might usefully exploit.
Negatives for MJXC: The story discusses alternatives to seat belts, but nothing like MJXC's SAFE-T-BAR is mentioned. People could interpret rejection of seat belts as also being a rejection of things like seatbelts, including SAFE-T-BAR.
Overall, I see the news as a long run positive for MJXC. NTSB is essentially mandating that everyone look for alternatives to seatbelts. That should provide many opportunity's for MJXC to at least try to sell the SAFE-T-BAR.
Text of the AP news story.
Wednesday September 22 2:36 AM ET
NTSB Won't Advise School Bus Belts
By GLEN JOHNSON Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Computer images of children whipping around inside a bus during an accident re-creation helped
convince the National Transportation Safety Board that it should not recommend the use of seat belts in school buses.
Wrapping up a three-year study of bus crash worthiness, the board watched the video re-creations of three accidents on
Tuesday to compare how children would have fared without belts, with belts and with a shoulder-and-lap combination.
The five members then voted unanimously to recommend that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration instead
expand current standards aimed at keeping children safely contained in their seating rows.
Those standards do not require a belt but instead that children be protected in a cocoon of padded, tightly spaced seats and
high seat backs. The safety board believes the regulations should be broadened within the next two years so children will have a
better chance of remaining inside a bus during a side collision or rollover.
Board engineers said that could be accomplished by increasing the height of seat backs, installing arm rests or replacing the
standard bus bench seat with sculpted, bucket-type seats.
In addition, the safety board urged NHTSA to develop standards for construction of roofs and windows in motor coaches
within the next two years and require new buses to meet those standards.
The board found in many accidents that the ever-larger windows in tour buses pop out and passengers are ejected. Missing
windows can also reduce roof strength. Board engineers believe window and roof frames can be strengthened and the glass
coated so that it doesn't shatter upon impact.
In a final recommendation, the board urged that buses be equipped with data recorders starting Jan. 1, 2003, to aid in future
accident investigations.
Right now school bus design is closely regulated. There are provisions for weld strength, window design and rollover
survivability. In contrast, motor coaches - the type of bus used by Greyhound - have no occupant protection standards.
Regardless, school buses and motor coaches are considered the safest forms of transportation on the road. On average, nine
people are killed each year in school buses, while four die in motor coaches. Roughly 42,000 are killed annually in car and
truck accidents.
Board engineers conceded that about half the school bus deaths are caused by impact, so even seat belts or extra padding
would probably not prevent four or five of the nine deaths annually.
While some safety experts believe that seat belts could make school buses even safer, a safety board engineer used crash data
to produce videos showing that students in three crashes studied might have actually been more severely injured if they had
been wearing lap belts or shoulder harnesses.
The engineer, Kris Bolte, said lap belts ``are not the simple solution,' because restrained passengers whip back and forth in
their seats, smashing their heads and snapping their necks. A passenger bouncing around the compartment spreads the impact
more evenly.
The safety board's study focused on accidents that occurred in Flagstaff, Ariz., in August 1996; Easton, Md., in October 1997;
Buffalo, Mont., in March 1998; Monticello, Minn., in April 1997; and Holyoke, Colo., and Holmdel, N.J, both in September
1998.
The study did not examine a series of bus accidents that occurred around the New Year's holiday or the crash of a
casino-bound charter bus in New Orleans in May, which killed 22 people.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would have no immediate comment on the safety board's
recommendations.
The safety board is a federal agency that investigates transportation accidents. It makes recommendations but lacks the power
to implement them. The safety administration is the federal agency charged with developing regulations for motor vehicle safety. |
