NHTSA may soon require safety belts in all new motor coaches
August 25th, 2010 by Kurt Niland
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed requiring safety belts in all new passenger buses and large school buses. The lap and shoulder belts would be mandatory on all passenger seats and the driver’s seat as well. The proposal, which would amend the federal motor vehicle safety standard on occupant crash protection (FMVSS No. 208), is intended to prevent the ejection of bus occupants in a crash or rollover.
If passed, the measure is expected to prevent nearly 800 injuries and save 8 lives annually.
The proposal estimates the total cost of adding belts, changing the anchorages, and reinforcing the floor of a 54-seat passenger bus to be about $12,900. NHTSA has not proposed retrofitting an estimated 29,325 motor coaches already in service with safety belt systems because doing so could cost the industry nearly a billion dollars.
Also, according to NHTSA’s proposal, “Retrofitting used motorcoaches may not be structurally viable for many motorcoaches and may not be economically feasible for many motorcoach-for-hire operators, many of which are small businesses.”
NHTSA said it has not completely ruled out retrofitting, but that it is taking a wait-and-see approach with its initial cost benefit analysis. Comments submitted to the NHTSA will also help the agency determine if retrofitting older busses is advisable.
According to NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data, between 1991 and 1997 there were fewer than 10 motorcoach fatalities annually. However, after that time period, several major individual crashes created a dramatic spike in the number of bus fatalities.
For instance, a bus crash outside of New Orleans killed 22 passengers in 1999. Fourteen passengers and the driver died in a 2004 crash in Arkansas when the coach hit a highway signpost. A bus fire in Texas during evacuation from oncoming Hurricane Rita in 2005 killed 23 passengers. Forty-one deaths in 2008 were the result of three different crashes in Mexican Hat, Utah; Sherman, Texas; and Williams, Calif. From 1999 to 2008, there were 54 fatal motor coach crashes causing 186 fatalities and many more injuries.