School bus seat belts show few benefits

More than 23 million children ride school buses each year.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a report submitted to Congress Tuesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommended against requiring seat belts in most school buses, saying costs and drawbacks outweigh any benefit.

The traffic safety agency examined the effectiveness of both lap belts and combination lap and shoulder belts.

It found that lap belts on large, new school buses have "little, if any, benefit" in reducing serious-to-fatal injuries in severe frontal crashes.

In previous studies, the federal government has found the size of buses and their high-backed seats were sufficient to keep students safe in most crashes.

In fact, the new study determined that in rare circumstances the lap belts actually may increase the risk of serious neck and abdominal injuries in young passengers.

The NHTSA did find that lap belts are an asset in small school buses because they help prevent children from being ejected during an accident.

Lap belts already are required on buses weighing under 10,000 pounds because they are more prone to roll over than are large school buses.

Combination lap and shoulder belts could provide some benefit on both large and small school buses, the NHTSA said. But agency researchers were concerned about injuries that could result if children misused the belts by putting the shoulder portion behind them.

It also determined that the seat redesign necessary to accommodate the belts would reduce school bus capacity by up to 17 percent, adding up to $50 per seating position to the cost of a new bus.

The NHTSA concluded that the total cost of more than $100 million, coupled with the chance of some injury from misuse, outweighed the estimated one life a year that could be saved by the lap and shoulder belts.

The agency is studying other ways to improve school bus safety, including increasing seat back height from 20 to 24 inches to reduce the likelihood children would be thrown over the seat during a crash.

Some 23.5 million children ride buses to and from school and school-related activities each year.

The NHTSA said school buses are nearly eight times safer than cars, with a fatality rate of 0.2 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared with 1.5 for cars.

Over the past 11 years, school buses averaged about 26,000 crashes resulting in 10 deaths annually, 25 percent of them drivers and 75 percent passengers. Frontal crashes account for about two passenger deaths each year.