Why don’t buses have seatbelts? Wearing a seatbelt while in a moving automobile is the law but if you are on a bus, suddenly seatbelts are unnecessary. According to many states, your eight-year-old child requires a booster seat along with a seat belt while in your car, but can ride on a bus with bench seats and no belts. Does this make sense? The situation is not much better for adults. Public transportation is generally an encouraged method of transportation. It lessens road traffic and creates less pollution. But have you ever seen a packed train car or bus where people are lucky if they get a handhold and wondered what would happen if there was a crash? And crashes do happen. Nine people died as a result of a crash on the Washington D.C. metro system in 2009. While there is no way to be certain that the use of seatbelts could have prevented any of those deaths, it is certainly not a stretch to think that they might have. There is no reason that these vehicles cannot be made safer for passengers so from now on, they will be.
All buses, trains, and planes that carry passengers must make use of some kind of safety restraint system. School buses that carry children must be outfitted with individual seats (no benches) and individual seat belts specifically designed for smaller passengers. Transit systems are encouraged to increase the number of trains and buses during peak hours to lessen overcrowding.
I know that public transportation systems need more help than seatbelts, and I will get to that. For now though, just start making buses and train cars safer for passengers. You should be able to feel as safe and secure on a bus as you do in your own car.
As always I remain you all-powerful and benevolent Queen of the World,
Marisa
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