dneul
New member
Where do I start? I am very fustrated with the school transportation but this just tops it.
A bit of back story...
My neighbor's daughter(Let's call her J) is 4 next month and goes to the same school as my 4 yo but in the mornings. (Early child special needs school for delays and disabilities.) She was diagnosed with a VERY rare disease in the spectrum of Leukodystrophies. She is unable to walk or even stand unassisted and uses a gait trainer until 2 days ago when her wheelchair finally arrived. The bus is a special needs bus that has 9 benches and most of the benches have the bus style 5 point harness (not positive of the brand name). The bus also has a wheelchair lift and tie downs in the front.
When the wheelchair people brought the chair it did not have the correct lap belt. The seating person ordered an upper body harness for an adult instead of a pediatric size one for the lap. I have J frequently and have done quite a bit for her as far as hacking things together. (A flag for visibility for her walker, a cup holder, a sling seat to catch her breath, etc.) She slid out of the wheelchair a few times the other night and yesterday morning I made her a seat belt with a piece of webbing and a snap buckle like in a grocery cart. It works great to keep her from sliding out of her seat and she can do it and undo it herself.
Now my question and concerns...
The school is wanting to transport her in the wheelchair. Mom and I have quite a bit of concerns with this.
1. The chair does not have a crash tested seat belt.
2. The child is within the limits of the available safer restraint systems.
3. The child is able to help transfer from chair to restraint.
4. Even with an "approved" seat belt, it would not have adaquate upper body protection.
5. I have not been able to locate instructions on the wheelchair itself to approve it as a restraint system on the chair itself.
6. The bus people did not even know how to use the tie downs the first day (yesterday) and had to self teach themselves.
The wheelchair is a Ti Lite pediatric wheelchair.
This is what it looks like and here is a bit more information about it.
[URL="http://www.tilite.com/wchairs_yr.php"[/URL]
We are going to the bus barn tomorrow because they are wanting to "recertify" (??!) What the heck does that mean? What can we bring with us as hard proof that she CAN NOT be transported in this chair? What are the FMVSS on something like this? I have a supplement from the manufacture that states that is NOT crash tested but any help would be useful to take with us...
A bit of back story...
My neighbor's daughter(Let's call her J) is 4 next month and goes to the same school as my 4 yo but in the mornings. (Early child special needs school for delays and disabilities.) She was diagnosed with a VERY rare disease in the spectrum of Leukodystrophies. She is unable to walk or even stand unassisted and uses a gait trainer until 2 days ago when her wheelchair finally arrived. The bus is a special needs bus that has 9 benches and most of the benches have the bus style 5 point harness (not positive of the brand name). The bus also has a wheelchair lift and tie downs in the front.
When the wheelchair people brought the chair it did not have the correct lap belt. The seating person ordered an upper body harness for an adult instead of a pediatric size one for the lap. I have J frequently and have done quite a bit for her as far as hacking things together. (A flag for visibility for her walker, a cup holder, a sling seat to catch her breath, etc.) She slid out of the wheelchair a few times the other night and yesterday morning I made her a seat belt with a piece of webbing and a snap buckle like in a grocery cart. It works great to keep her from sliding out of her seat and she can do it and undo it herself.
Now my question and concerns...
The school is wanting to transport her in the wheelchair. Mom and I have quite a bit of concerns with this.
1. The chair does not have a crash tested seat belt.
2. The child is within the limits of the available safer restraint systems.
3. The child is able to help transfer from chair to restraint.
4. Even with an "approved" seat belt, it would not have adaquate upper body protection.
5. I have not been able to locate instructions on the wheelchair itself to approve it as a restraint system on the chair itself.
6. The bus people did not even know how to use the tie downs the first day (yesterday) and had to self teach themselves.
The wheelchair is a Ti Lite pediatric wheelchair.
This is what it looks like and here is a bit more information about it.
[URL="http://www.tilite.com/wchairs_yr.php"[/URL]
We are going to the bus barn tomorrow because they are wanting to "recertify" (??!) What the heck does that mean? What can we bring with us as hard proof that she CAN NOT be transported in this chair? What are the FMVSS on something like this? I have a supplement from the manufacture that states that is NOT crash tested but any help would be useful to take with us...