In a Webcast this afternoon, a federal safety official said that while school buses are the safest way for children to get to and from school, more should be done to keep passengers safe during certain types of crashes.

Deborah Hersman, one of five members of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), addressed members of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) in the online event.

Hersman discussed several pupil transportation accidents that the NTSB has investigated, including the March 2000 bus-train crash near Conasauga, Tenn., in which three children were killed. Following its investigation of that accident, the NTSB issued 10 recommendations on improving school bus and grade crossing safety.

The Webcast showed computer simulations of the various bus accidents. Some simulations added lap belts and lap-shoulder belts to bus passengers to estimate how the results of the same crash would have differed.

The NTSB hasn’t specifically recommended adding seat belts to school buses, but it has found that compartmentalization is incomplete because it does not fully protect passengers in major lateral impacts and rollovers.

Hersman cited a report on school bus crashworthiness that the NTSB issued in 1999, which asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop new standards to keep passengers in their seating compartments during all types of accidents.

In November 2006, the NTSB added this recommendation to its “Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements” list. The item’s status is currently defined as “acceptable response, progressing slowly.”

The Webcast is available for further viewing over the next month. RealPlayer is required; it can be downloaded for free here.

Due to audio difficulty at the beginning of the Webcast, the introduction was repeated at the end. It is recommended that viewers skip ahead to the 44:40 mark, watch until the end (47:15) and then return to the beginning.

To access the Webcast, click here.