A rural Marlborough school principal believes school buses need seatbelts, but the company which does all but two of the school runs in the region says it has not considered fitting them on its school buses.
Rapaura School principal Helen Williams said the new buses rolled out by transport company Ritchies earlier this year should have had seatbelts for school children.
Concerns have been raised following a horrific crash in the Bay of Plenty on Monday in which a logging truck rear-ended a school bus, injuring 35 children.
Mrs Williams said 49 of the 122 Rapaura pupils caught the bus to and from school every day.
"I would feel a lot happier if the children were belted in."
Country roads were "traditionally dangerous" because there were no places for buses to pull over and were often high-speed roads.
She said the Ministry of Education should have seatbelt guidelines or make it a condition of tenders for school bus runs.
A spokesman from Ritchies, which does the school run for all schools except Ward School and Queen Charlotte College, said retrofitting its fleet with seatbelts would take about three weeks and cost about $55,000 for each bus.
The process would involve removing the floor so framing could be reworked to bring it up to the engineering standard required. The buses are built on a truck chassis.
The company's long distance coaches have seatbelts and it holds some contracts with schools that require them as a condition elsewhere in New Zealand, but students do not wear them, the spokesman said.
Bus contracts in some schools are put out to tender by the school itself while the Education Ministry handles the process on behalf of others.
Queen Charlotte College principal Tom Parsons said the school runs its own bus which does have seatbelts, but most students do not wear them.
It was drawing a long bow to expect a bus driver to check if students were wearing them, he said.
Grovetown mother Wendy Palmer emailed Education Minister Anne Tolley and Associate Education Minister Pita Sharples calling for an urgent review on policy regarding seatbelts on school buses.
She had been worried for some time about children riding unrestrained in buses and the crash on Monday was a reminder of what could happen, although unlikely.
A spokesman for Mrs Tolley said the email had been received and a response would be forthcoming.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONGDisagree with having the seat belts, yes of course I'm for the safety of the children, however "the driver" is responsible for children under the age of 14 in cars etc... don't think the driver of the bus will be able to police "ALL" kids on the bus are correctly wearing them. Bus drivers dont want more responsibility, Don't tarnish all busses because of one accident.
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