NAPT's SBIC still industry sentinel
Several recent school bus crashes have led to a flurry of activity at the School Bus Information Clearinghouse (SBIC; www.schoolbusinfo.org). NAPT (www.napt.org) created SBIC, formerly called the School Bus Information Council, in 1998 as an open source of information about school buses.
SBIC uses a Website stocked with the latest industry data and a toll-free phone hotline to provide reporters, state offi cials and consumers with information about school buses seven days a week, 365 days a year.
SBIC also has a “School Bus Fact Sheet” that is sent to major news outlets where a serious incident or crash occurs so that reporters have the background information they need to write in a balanced way about the school bus industry and its performance.
In addition to working with the media, SBIC can also help school transportation service providers respond to emergency situations. We try to give callers helpful advice that is very bottom line and plain English. It should be an essential phone call to help deal effectively with a difficult situation — (888) FOR-SBIC (367-7242).
For example, if there has been a school bus crash and children have been injured or killed, emotions will be running high. Parents will be wondering why there are no seat belts on school buses and likely have other questions. The media will demand answers.
Most spokespeople respond by saying there are no safety belts because they cost too much, or there is no budget for them. However, this is usually not true, and chances are the issue hasn’t even been evaluated locally.
So why is this a common refrain? Because under pressure, most people don’t know what else to say. The questions stem from an emotional circumstance, and it’s human nature to want to “do something” when a tragedy occurs. But it doesn’t help anyone to provide misinformation.
So what should you say? Here are some suggested responses often used by SBIC that are more appropriate when a tragedy occurs and a media cycle is running:
First, it is very important for people to know that school bus professionals across America begin every school day trying to ensure the highest level of safety for all children in their care. Second, please remember that school transportation professionals are also parents and grandparents, which means they are grieving along with everyone else where the incident occurred.
It’s important to give the police and other professional law enforcement agencies time to thoroughly investigate the circumstances of any crash. It’s their job to objectively ascertain and evaluate what happened. Afterwards, we can all have a fact-based discussion on what — if anything — might prevent a similar occurrence.
School buses are inherently safer than passenger cars. For that reason, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) decided many years ago to, instead of putting belts in buses, use another approach: high-backed, well-padded, closely-spaced seats that provide excellent “automatic” protection in most crashes. The safety record over many decades with this approach has been the best in the transportation industry.
Important: The school transportation industry is not opposed to the installation of safety belts or any other safety approach that can be shown through fact-based science that it would improve the safety of children riding in school buses. But because the safety of our children is at issue, and because large school buses already provide an extraordinarily safe environment for riders, many people cannot support any proposed safety measure that is not grounded in scientifically validated tests, studies and analyses.
