SafeGuard supplies seat belt system for Greyhound

WESTFIELD, Ind. — Greyhound’s new motorcoaches will include occupant-restraint technology similar to what is already in use in many school buses.

The intercity transportation provider has ordered 140 Prevost coaches equipped with the new Premier seat. With the seat, SafeGuard provides three-point belts along with its SmartFrame system, which protects belted and unbelted passengers through compartmentalization.

James Johnson, director of sales for SafeGuard, which is a division of IMMI, said that experience in the school transportation market prepared the company to serve the motorcoach market.

“SafeGuard was the first to bring lap-shoulder belts to market on school bus seats in 2002, and now SafeGuard bus seats are protecting over 200,000 children in more than 40 states,” he said. “The company achieved a lead position in the school bus seating market by offering SmartFrame technology and by certifying seat performance to NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] requirements in our crash-test facility.”

Greyhound is a business unit of FirstGroup America, as is school transportation contractor First Student.

The Premier, which is supplied by SafeGuard in partnership with American Seating, is now available on Prevost coaches and will soon be available on other OEMs’ coaches.

One of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements is to enhance protection for motorcoach passengers. The board has called on NHTSA to devise new standards to keep passengers from being thrown from their seats or ejected when a motorcoach sustains a front, side or rear impact or rolls over.