Special needs child and wheelchair in bus

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.
10090.jpg

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...
 
ADS

LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician
I don't know much about this issue, but there's no doubt that an approved 5-point harness is far safer than a tied-down wheelchair with lap-belt.

Definitely take any documentation you have showing that the chair is not crash-tested.

Beyond that, hopefully someone else will be along to offer more advice.

But I'd fight tooth-and-nail to get my kid back in the 5-point harness.

Also make sure that they are properly securing the (empty) wheelchair. That would be a huge projectile if not secured.
 

murphydog77

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
In the special needs training we were taught that transfer to a seat as long as possible is ALWAYS preferred. Even wheelchairs that are certified (I'm forgetting the designation) are certified for ease of tie-down and use of a real lap/shoulder belt with it- not for the harness to be used as sole restraint. Someone who does this more than me can probably help more, but I can state confidently that transfer is the safer option, that the mother has the right to insist on it, and that many harnesses for chairs are not crash-tested at all, but are for positioning.
 

dneul

New member
Thank you for your response. This morning when the bus came to get J, the driver and aide said that it was ok and only for a short distance (1 mile) and didn't understand the big deal. Point is that the manufacture does not allow person to be transported in chair and states in supplement to the manual that person is to be transfered. I will take print outs and some other things that I found and will (try) to remain calm and let mom take lead.
 

dneul

New member
I met with the transportation director this afternoon and she was VERY hostile upfront with me. She said that it is "Policy" to transport all students in a wheelchair in the chair itself and that 90% of chairs can be transported in...Is that right? She did calm down and actually sit with me and was finally listening to me but boy was she worked up. She said that she was "certified" in bus and special needs transport but could not tell me where and with whom she was certified with. Nor could she show me where the "policy" was and finally said that it was their "practice". She did agree NOT to transport in the chair and said that she would move J into the 5 point harness...
 

Shaunam

New member
She might need to call for an IEP meeting. The bus driver has NO clue and cannot be making decisions like that. It shouldn't be too hard to show the info to them and get it properly worded in her IEP so the bus driver won't be making asinine suggestions.

I don't know about how she would be protected under the law or anything, but my DD DOES have a wheelchair that's approved for transport and they said there would be no problem in transferring her to a 5 point car seat and leaving the chair empty (and tied down) for transport. For a wheelchair that isn't even crash-tested, they would be dumb to try and tell her that her daughter HAS to be transported in it.
 

flipper68

Senior Community Member
2 problems:

1) w/c manufacturer states it is NOT for transport - not wc19 compliant or a "transport chair"
Many w/c have the option to be a transport or non transport chair. As with any "option," there is an additional cost for tie downs. (Convaid does a nice job of explaining WC 19 as well a providing links to other special needs transport information. http://www.convaid.com/wc19-wheelchair-safety-standard-i-21-l-en.html)

2) According to the picture, there is no head rest/head support on w/c

The seat belt/harness in the w/c is irrelevant. That is a positioning belt, not a restraint. The bus would use a seat belt in addition to tie downs to transport.
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
All research and recommendations strongly suggest that it's much safer to transport someone in a vehicle seat rather than in a wheelchair. A vehicle seat (car, bus, etc.) must meet federal government safety standards, wheelchairs do not. When tying down a w/c there are too many variables that can go wrong. I've seen children in w/c that are tied down and no lap-shoulder belt for the child. Secure the w/c, but not the child? That's ridiculous, but is done everyday. Most people assume you can use the chest harness (that a child might have) as a restraint, but it is merely a positioning device, and does not take the place of a seatbelt. If a w/c does not have a transit option which provides specific, clearly labeled places to tie down the chair, then this leaves room for error since the driver/aide on the bus may tie down the chair using any part of the w/c. Many of them may not know what best practice is. Visit www.rercwts.org for lots of w/c transportation info.
 

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