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Objective
In its 1999 special investigation report on bus crashworthiness, the Safety Board found that current compartmentalization, because of its design, does not protect all passengers during lateral impacts with vehicles of large mass or during rollovers. During these types of accidents, passengers come in contact with other passengers, the side walls, the windows, or the edges of adjacent seats—all surfaces that are not designed to absorb impact energy. The Board concluded that because of compartmentalization, school bus passengers are safer now than they were prior to landmark legislation introduced in 1977 requiring significant changes to school bus vehicle design. However, subsequent accidents led the Board to further conclude that current compartmentalization is incomplete in that passengers do not always remain completely within the seating compartment. Because the potential exists for an occupant crash protection system to be developed that would better protect school bus passengers in various accident scenarios, the Board asked the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) to develop pertinent standards for school bus occupant protection systems and to require newly manufactured school buses to have an occupant crash protection system that meets the newly developed performance standards to retain passengers, including those in child safety restraint systems, within the seating compartment throughout the accident sequence for all accident scenarios.
Summary of Action
NHTSA responded in 2000 that it was working on a 2-year research program through the Volpe Center to scientifically determine the real-world effectiveness of current Federal requirements for school bus occupant crash protection and would evaluate alternative occupant crash protection systems in controlled laboratory tests. In the agency’s 2002 Report to Congress on school bus research, NHTSA stated that it planned to issue an NPRM for voluntarily installed belts and higher seat backs on school buses and a requirement for lap/shoulder belts on small school buses.
On July 11, 2007, NHTSA held the Seat Belts on School Buses public meeting to bring together a roundtable of State and local government policymakers, school bus and seat manufacturers, pupil transportation associations, and public interest groups to discuss the issue of seat belts on large school buses. At the meeting, NHTSA shared the findings of its recent full-scale frontal and side crash tests on large school buses; the simulations had evaluated compartmentalization, lap belts, lap/shoulder belts, and high seat backs. As a result of the tests, NHTSA published an NPRM on November 21, 2007, proposing to increase seat back height and to establish performance requirements for voluntarily installed seat belts, both lap and lap/shoulder, with specifications on anchorage strength and belt fit. The NPRM also requested public comments on the agency’s consideration of best practices concerning seat belts on large buses. In its comments to the NPRM, the Safety Board noted that the NPRM was inadequate in regard to the requirements for enhanced occupant protection on large school buses and that sufficient testing had not yet been completed to enable rulemaking on occupant protection standards for large school buses.
On October 21, 2008, NHTSA issued a final rule, titled Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Seating Systems, Occupant Crash Protection, Seat Belt Assembly Anchorages, School Bus Passenger Seating and Crash Protection.
Actions Remaining
The Safety Board is evaluating the October 21, 2008, final rule to determine whether the rule meets the intent of the Board's recommendations.
Safety Recommendations
H-99-45 (NHTSA)
Issued November 2, 1999
Added to the Most Wanted List: 2006
Status: Open—Acceptable Response
In 2 years, develop performance standards for school bus occupant protection systems that account for frontal impact collisions, side impact collisions, rear impact collisions, and rollovers. (Source: Bus Crashworthiness Issues. [NTSB/SIR-99/04])
H-99-46 (NHTSA)
Issued November 2, 1999
Added to the Most Wanted List: 2006
Status: Open—Acceptable Response
Once pertinent standards have been developed for school bus occupant protection systems, require newly manufactured school buses to have an occupant crash protection system that meets the newly developed performance standards and retains passengers, including those in child safety restraint systems, within the seating compartment throughout the accident sequence for all accident scenarios. (Source: Bus Crashworthiness Issues. [NTSB/SIR-99/04])
October 2008
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