School Bus Safety: Evaluating the Evolution of Compartmentalization and Seat Belt Restraints

Nearly 25 million school children in the United States rely on school buses for transport from home to school each day. In 1977, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 222 was enacted into law and established requirements that have essentially remained unchanged for seating and restraining barriers on school buses. The compartmentalization component, in which passengers are surrounded by heavily padded seats, remains the defining characteristic of FMVSS 222. The safety record of school buses is attributable in large part to the passive passenger protection provided by FMVSS 222 and other school bus-specific safety standards, along with specialized licensure and training of qualified school bus drivers. This research paper documents the evolution of the modern school bus and explores the need to consider an update to this standard through an examination of whether additional safety measures, such as lap and shoulder restraints, should be considered. Two bus crash demonstrations using full-scale anthropomorphic test devices were conducted in August and November 2013, and conditions on the school bus during the simulated collisions are described in this paper. Results of the crash demonstrations indicate that there are opportunities to enhance safety for school bus riders.