Upstate lawmaker discusses seat belts on school buses after deadly crash

An Upstate lawmaker is weighing in on the debate over seat belts on school buses, a day after a teenager was killed in a crash along Interstate 77.The Chester County Coroner's Office has identified the student who died as 13-year-old Jose Maria Gonzalez Linares of Lexington County. Investigators said he was on an eighth-grade field trip with Pine Ridge Middle School when a tire blew out on the bus, causing it to strike a guardrail before overturning."I'm just praying that the Lord's grace and mercy and love are surrounding that family," state Sen. Jason Elliott, R-Greenville County, said. Elliott said the majority of school bus crashes happen at the front of the vehicle or with other vehicles. "I would like to have expert information and data based upon the crash investigation to determine if a seat belt in a rollover situation with a guardrail would have been a better situation than not having one," he said.He said research generally advises against requiring seat belts on large buses. "Studies have shown that, per mile, children are safer in school buses without seat belts than in a personal vehicle," Elliott said. "You have a situation where the seat belt, a lap belt, can cause internal injuries from a crash, and you can have children trapped on the bus."Only eight states across the country mandate seat belts on their larger buses — Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Texas."There is currently no state requirement for seat belts on standard-sized school buses," a South Carolina Department of Education spokesperson said. "New school buses ordered by the state do not include seat belts. The NHTSA does require seat belts on new, smaller school buses – those with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 10,000 pounds or less. South Carolina adheres to those federal standards, however this represents a very small portion of the state-owned fleet. Currently, there is one bus in our fleet that meets this requirement."Motor coach driver Steve Sulligan, a former South Carolina state trooper, said tire blowouts do not happen often."But that's why we do pre-trip inspections every morning, every night, pre-trip and post-trip," Sulligan said. "I look at a tire. All the driver will inspect tires, particularly because you can catch a bulge. You may see a malfunction."Sulligan said that in his more than 40 years on the road, he has had two tire blowouts. He said they require immediate reaction from the driver."The bus was out of control, basically, and it's jumping up and down," he said about one tire blowout he had. "It's veering off to the left and right depending on what tire has blown. Then, the biggest part is what kind of room you have on the road you're at, if you're on a four-lane road or two-lane road."A Greenville County Schools spokesperson said most of its state-owned school buses are not equipped with seat belts and rely on a safety design called "compartmentalization." He also said a small number of buses have seat belts installed in the first few rows for some of the youngest students.