Daycare School bus - no seatbelts/harness

[Karine88]

I have a 4 1/2 yr old daughter who has an upcoming outing with her daycare class. I am absolutely 100% against letting her ride in the bus, because there are no harnesses or seat belts for the little ones. Am I being overly paranoid here? Everybody I talk to seems to think it is not a problem at all. All the other parents look at me like I'm some neurotic mom! Up until now, it hasn't been an issue because my husband or I would go with her on the outings and drive her in our car, follow the bus, but now that she is almost 5 and starting school soon, I know many many more outings will come our way, and my little one is now starting to question why she is the only child not going on the bus.

Here in Quebec, I find that we are WAY behind the other provinces in terms of car seat safety. No one I know RFaces past 20lbs, or uses a car seat with harness past 40lbs. I'm still sticking to my guns on these safety issues, but as for the school bus, I don't know what to do!

It isn't possible for us to go with her this time, and the whole class is already talking about how fun the event will be, so i would feel terrible taking that away from her!!

Any thoughts? Any ideas how I could get involved in promoting safer seats on school busses?

thank you!

[mommycat]

When you say schoolbus, do you mean the big yellow bus, or do they use a van of some sort? I have read here before that the yellow buses are pretty much the safest way to be on the road. I hope somebody can give you some more concrete info.

[ketchupqueen]

Unfortunately, while schoolbuses are really very safe, compartmentalization just doesn't work for the preschool set. They are too short and slight. Here in the US we have laws that preschool children have to be harnessed on buses, but I don't know if you have any comparable laws.

I do know that harness seats for buses are available in Canada but I don't know what you'd have to do to get one, or if an individual parent could (or if it has to be the school/district.)

[raelynn]

I dont think any Canadian provinces have requirements for seatbelts on buses. I drive a yellow bus, and the only buses we have with seatbelts are special needs buses. School buses are a very safe way to travel, but unfortunately unless laws change, they aren't going to put seat belts on buses. They have done studies both ways, and I believe their reasoning for why there are no seat belts, is because if there was ever a fire or emergency where the kids had to evacuate in a big hurry, the length of time it would take to evacuate increased significantly if they were all harnessed/belted in. Bus seats are padded and designed to protect children in a collision (called compartmentalization), and the seats sit high enough that if the bus was hit by another vehicle, the bottom of the bus crumples and the impact is below the children.

I don't know if that reassures you any, but follow your mommy instinct. If that means driving your daughter until she is older, then that's okay!

[QuassEE]

Seatbelt retrofits on standard school buses will actually DECREASE the safety of the child, apparently... I heard some statistics on it at Lifesavers last year. The whole seats have to be upgraded in order to add safe restraints.. I'm not sure if that really applies the same way to the preschool age group, this was the school-aged group...

I wouldn't let my young child ride in a big yellow bus...Young children are stuffed three to a seat, usually resulting in one child hanging off the side of a seat and becoming a projectile were there a crash. I also don't think they're mature enough to sit properly. I started letting my kids ride on the bus at around age 10 but still ask them to ride in the back two rows of the bus.

-Nicole.

[hipmaman]

My kids ride the yellow school bus for twice a day, 5 days a week. They've been doing that for 4 yrs for the oldest one and 2 for the younger one. The baby would most likely to travel by school bus to school when she is old enough and the older ones will continue riding the bus until they graduate high school. It's the French Immersion system here and where we live, they need to be bused to the nearest FI school. It's just how it is for us.

I've done the routine where dh and I would take time off from work to drive them to field trips (further than 20 min. ride) in our vehicle from the time they were started JK to about when the oldest ended Grade 2 and the younger one Grade 1.

We are now comfortable enough with the bus and don't have the same anxiety as we did. The kids know they need to only sit 2 per bench (and the kids on the bus usually do 3 per bench if they want to sit and talk together. it's not something mandated or forced) and not to sit in the front where there is not a bench in front.

[Karine88]

thank you all for your replies.
It is a big yellow bus (not a van).
I've been reading up on this issue a bit more and see why seatbelts aren't mandatory on buses... it could actually decrease the safety of the child.
So at least, that makes me feel a bit better... but I think I will keep driving her for now!! Thanks very much!