NTSB Makes Recommendations To Improve School Bus Safety

Improved reporting of school bus driver medical conditions among medical companies, school bus contractors and school districts; and passing all commercial driver’s license holders through a facial recognition system…

Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) approved and released its findings with recommendations based on recurring safety issues in school bus transportation safety. The NTSB discussed seat belts and examined the causes of two fatal 2016 school bus crashes in Baltimore, Md. and Chattanooga, Tenn. The two crashes injured 37 people and killed 12.

The report recommends that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and several other agencies, require collision avoidance systems on all new large school buses.

The four states that require lap belts only-Florida, Louisiana, New York and New Jersey-were recommended to update their specifications to lap-shoulder belts. California and Texas require lap-shoulder seat belts, with Nevada requiring them next summer and Arkansas allowing local voters to petition for a levy on property taxes to pay for the occupant restraints.

The remaining 42 states and Puerto Rico lack occupant restraint mandates.

The report recommends crash prevention technologies including collision avoidance, electronic stability control and automatic emergency breaking.

Dedicated, crash-protected event data recorders should also be installed and implemented for all heavy-vehicles, including school buses.

Other recommendations include improved reporting of school bus driver medical conditions among medical companies, school bus contractors and school districts; and passing all commercial driver’s license holders through a facial recognition system.

A complete list of safety recommendations is available here.

This article originally published by Strategic Partnerships, Inc.