Reported by: Tom McKee
Photographed by: Scott Wegener
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Karen Bannister has been behind the wheel of the Princeton City Schools bus for 11-years and loves what she does.
"We really are good drivers," said Bannister.
However, if you get her talking about the possibility of putting seat belts on school buses, she has an opinion ready and waiting.
"It can be a hazard," she said because of what she sees as the impact on the children.
"I would be upset if they were strapped in and a fire broke out and I didn't have time to cut the seat belts," she said.
"There would be more kids left and more casualties," she added. "That would be on my head and I would really feel bad.
Discussion on the topic of seat belts on buses was heard in every Tri-state school transportation office Friday, following Thursday's death of 16-year-old Daniel Wood in Pendleton County.
Wood died when the bus on which he was a passenger was struck by a dump truck on Kentucky Route 22, west of Falmouth.
The impact heavily damaged the passenger compartment on the left rear, the driver's side, of the bus.
Those advocating seat belts say it doesn't make sense to require children to be restrained in passenger vehicles and not on school buses.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that statistics show that passenger cars are more dangerous for children.
In 1995, agency data shows that 8,168 children between the ages of five-years-old and 20-years-old died as a passenger or driver in a motor vehicle.
During that same year, 12 passengers on school buses were killed.
That's considering there are 394,000 school buses on U.S. roads traveling approximately 4.3 billion miles a year to transport 2.35 million students to and from school-related events.
Carolyn Thornton, transportation coordinator for Princeton City Schools, said she doesn't think seat belts would have made a difference in that crash.
Neither did Phil Jones, who is in charge of transportation for Boone County Schools in Northern Kentucky.
Jones says he believes that seat belts will be installed on school buses some day, adding, "I would be against it right now with the current technology."
He pointed out the same analogy as Bannister.
"If we were in a situation where a bus would catch fire, we would need to evacuate quickly," Jones said. "I'm not sure we could do it if they were all buckled in."
Jones also raised the question of what would happen if the driver were incapacitated in some way.
Rather than require seat belts, NHTSA says the best way to provide crash protection for school bus passengers is through a concept called "compartmentalization."
That's a passive system where children are protected by being surrounded by seats that have high backs and are heavily padded on both sides.
Some districts have three-point seat harnesses on buses for special needs students or smaller children.
They could be installed on every seat to protect students in rollover accidents, but there's a cost involved.
Thornton said a three-point system would mean seat capacity would be reduced from three to two.
More buses would be needed to transport the extra children, she said.
That puts the discussion back to seat belts, which Thornton maintains is the wrong approach.
"Our children are not being killed inside school buses," she said. "If you look at the statistics, the majority of fatalities happen outside school buses in loading-zone accidents."
"The seat belt advocates need to channel their efforts and concentrate on stiffer and stronger penalties for stop-arm violators and not seat belts on school buses," Thornton added.
"If we could up with a failsafe method, then cost wouldn't be an issue," said Jones, who added that he feels school buses are 12% to 15% safer on the roads than passenger vehicles.
"Absolutely," he continued. "They are the safest form of travel out there."
Princeton bus driver Debbie Schatzle says that's because members of her profession take a lot of pride in what they do.
"When we transport your children, they're not just yours," she said. "They're ours."
However, she says she doesn't believe seat belts are needed.
"Totally against it – both as a parent and child," Schatzle said.
"As a parent, I would not put my child on a bus with seat belts," said Schatzle. "I would rather see that my child free-fall through the bus and take a chance on a broken arm or leg, than to know that my child could burn up or be severely hurt with a seat belt."
The debate goes on while Pendleton County prepares to bury one of its own.
The visitation and funeral for Daniel Wood will be held this Saturday at the Peoples Funeral Home in Falmouth.
