In the previous edition of Liberal News and Commentary, I wrote about how I had succeeded in getting my daughter Dawn's school to switch to using school buses that were equipped with seat belts, only to have the policy overturned by the superintendent of the school district. Perhaps the appropriate terminology is to say that the policy, like so many passengers before it, died when it was rolled over.
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In the four short days since that edition was published, yet another disaster has taken place which demonstrates the catastrophe that can occur when bus passengers are not protected by seat belts.
On Saturday, in Portugal, fourteen people were killed and twenty-five more were injured when a bus went off the road and rolled over.
Take a look at this photo of the bus, which was published by Associated Press. Notice how the bus is essentially structurally intact. Certainly, the seats seem to be intact. Had the passengers been properly secured in their seats by seat belts, rather than being catapulted through the bus, or ejected out the the windows of the bus and rolled over upon by the bus, surely most, if not all of the passengers would have survived, with nominal, if any, injuries, rather than being slammed and smashed to their deaths. For most, if not all, passengers, it would have been just like a bad amusement park ride, where you get bounced around a bit, only to walk away afterwards. Here, however, no seat belts (obviously) meant death or serious injury for most of passengers.
CNN Interactive published a full story about the tragedy, entitled, "Second bus tragedy in Portugal."
This disaster comes just one week after one person was killed and about one hundred others injured in an Amtrak train crash in rural Iowa on Saturday, March 17th. Just like school buses, Amtrak trains don't have seat belts. Just like in the Portugal bus crash, the train cars remained virtually intact, as is demonstrated by these photos of the train cars (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4), which were published by television station WHO of Des Moines, Iowa. Surely, if the passengers had been strapped in, rather than slammed around the car, most, if not all, passengers would have walked away with nothing worse than a case of wet pants.
According to preliminary reports, the crash was caused by a broken rail. Broken rails happen in the train business, but people shouldn't die just because a rail broke. With seat belts, a broken rail would merely mean a little inconvenience and delay for the passengers and a trip to the body shop for a few bent up train cars, rather than a trip to the hospital or the morgue for most of the passengers.
During the week between the Amtrak fatal train crash and the Portugal fatal bus crash, Chicago Tribune Transportation Writer Jim Mateja wrote a story about how the National Transportation Highway Safety Administration has determined that "you can reduce your chance of being killed in a rollover by about 75 percent just by wearing your seat belt." The article also quotes Phil Horton, of General Motors' Safety Laboratories, who says, "The greatest opportunity for individuals to avoid being injured in a rollover crash is to drive within posted speed limits, drive unimpaired and always buckle up." I was unable to find a link to the story in the electronic edition of the Chicago Tribune, so for your convenience, here is a J-PEG image of the print edition of the story, entitled, "Modern day Star Chamber for rollovers."
Precisely because Greyhound (which is owned by Laidlaw, the same company which supplies school buses to my daughter's school), Amtrak and school buses don't have seat belts, I won't ride ride either of the first two and I certainly won't allow any child of mine to ride the latter.
Meanwhile, as I said last time, my daughter, Dawn, wasn't about to let her safety be jeopardized by traveling in a school bus without seat belts. Since today's edition is long enough as it is, the details of how Dawn took on the school board will be presented in the next edition of Liberal News and Commentary. That's not a tease. I hate it, too, when the TV News boys pull that kind of thing to string you along past a set of commercials. However, I feel that it is important to keep these articles to a reasonable length, but that bringing you news of the unfortunate bus disaster over the weekend in Portugal, which you may not have heard about and coming so soon after the latest Amtrak disaster, would help to demonstrate that the need for seat belts on mass transit vehicles is real and urgent.
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