Monrovia Unified School District to Get New School Buses

Monrovia’s new buses will have seatbelts. – Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News

California law now requires seat belts on new school buses

By Terry Miller

With students’ lives paramount on local school districts’ minds, Monrovia School District is one district getting a supply of new school buses and they will be equipped with seatbelts.

First day of school is Aug. 15, at least in Monrovia.

For the first time, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is recommending all new school buses be equipped with lap and shoulder seat belts, after the agency released findings from a special investigation report prompted by two deadly 2016 crashes.

“I feel like we’ve always tiptoed around this issue of seat belt usage and lap [and] shoulder belts in school buses,” said NTSB Board Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt. “The last recommendation we made on this was in 2013 coming out of a crash in Chesterfield, N.J., that occurred in February of 2012. And it was a recommendation which is sort of weak in my opinion,” according to an ABC News report published May 23 on the growing number of bus accidents.

California law now requires three-point seat belts on (1) school buses manufactured on and after July 1, 2005 that carry more than 16 passengers and (2) all other school buses manufactured on and after July 1, 2004. It requires school transportation providers, when feasible, to give priority to elementary school students when allocating seat-belt equipped school buses. Under the law, the state cannot charge any person, school district, or organization with violating this law if a passenger either does not fasten his or her seat belt, or does so improperly (Cal. Veh. Code § 27316).

State regulations require school bus passengers to (1) use the seat belts and (2) be taught how to use them in an age-appropriate manner (Cal. Code Regs. Title 5, § 14105).