While there has been a big push to get Maine drivers to buckle up in recent years, there is one group that is exempt. Since school buses are not required to be equipped with seatbelts for passengers in Maine, kids riding to school each day do not have to buckle up.
In the recent fatal crash where a woman died after her truck collided head on with a Gorham school bus, four students and the bus driver, who was wearing a seatbelt, received only minor injuries. Laurie Anderson, director of transportation for the Gorham School Department, said seatbelts are unnecessary for passengers on school buses.
Anderson said school buses are built to take an impact. “That’s why the students are fine,” she said.
Anderson said research has shown that seatbelts weren’t necessary for school buses because of the compartmentalized seat arrangements. “A school bus is the safest form of transportation in the country,” she said.
In some cases, she said seatbelts could hinder evacuating passengers from a school bus. If a bus stalled on a railroad track or rolled over, it would be impossible to get 60 to 70 kids out of buses in a timely fashion if they were wearing seatbelts, Anderson said.
However, the National Coalition For School Bus Safety (NCSBS) has advocated putting seatbelts on all school buses. The coalition said that more than 200 school districts around the country have installed seatbelts on their buses as an extra safety precaution.
The NCSBS has advised parents to contact legislators about installing seatbelts on school buses. But Rep. Chris Barstow, D-Gorham, said Maine does a good job working with school districts on school bus safety. Barstow doesn’t foresee any proposed legislation coming to require seatbelts on school buses in Maine.
The coalition feels putting seatbelts on buses would teach children the importance of buckling up. “Opponents ignore the fact that by not providing seatbelts, a school district is demonstrating a form of negative education. This negative training carries over to the family car, leaving children defenseless against their number one killer, the automobile collision. Our teens are killed in drastic numbers each year because they haven’t learned the importance of wearing a seatbelt,” a statement on the NCSBS Web site reads.
But a state survey shows more Mainers buckled up last year and a pro racecar driver from Gorham as well as Gorham’s police chief touted the use of seatbelts.
Jason Webster, 30, who drives at the Beech Ridge Speedway, said he automatically clicks his seatbelt when getting in a car on or off the track. “It’s second nature in racing,” Webster said.
Webster, who works as a mechanic at an auto dealership, said seatbelts and airbags in the newer cars work together for ultimate safety of everyone in the vehicle.
In addition to his mechanical knowledge, Webster also once served as a firefighter where he saw firsthand the importance of seat belts. “I’ve seen some bad accidents. The victims would have been better off wearing seatbelts,” Webster said.
Gorham Police Chief Ron Shepard believes seat belt use increased in Gorham last year although he wasn’t able to cite supporting statistics. He said one thing he knows for certain is that seat belts have reduced injuries and saved lives. “No doubt about it,” Shepard said.
Lillian Grant, 91, of Gorham doesn’t drive these days but always buckles her seatbelt when riding as a passenger. She has always made use of a seat belt. “I buckled before most people did,” Grant said.
While Grant always wears her seat belt, there are plenty of other drivers who don’t, risking a fine if they are caught.
Police in Gorham wrote 229 summonses for seatbelt violations through mid November last year. Gorham was one of 85 police departments in Maine that participated in a two-week seatbelt enforcement that over last Memorial Day weekend.
During that period, Gorham officers stopped 260 vehicles. They handed out 102 summonses and 48 warnings for seatbelts and 86 summonses for other violations.
Failing to buckle up can be costly. Sherry Wilkins, statistician for the Maine courts, said the state took in $530,000 in seatbelt fines during the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2004. Wilkins said the first seatbelt offense is $70; second offense, $160; and third, $310. Maine averages more than 8,000 seatbelt violations a year.
The Maine Department of Public Safety said a survey this past summer indicated 75.8 percent of Mainers buckled their seatbelts last year. Maine’s figure, third among New England states, is up from 59 percent in 2003 and 72.6 percent in 2004.
Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara is encouraged by the improvement. “Maine has made significant progress, but more work remains,” he said.
Maine is still lagging behind the national average of 82 percent for 2005. “We want to strive to get up to the national average,” said Carl Hallman of Maine Public Safety.
According to National Highway Traffic Administration, that’s the highest level in the nation’s history. At a rate of 82 percent, the NHTA estimated that seatbelts are saving 15,700 fatalities, 350,000 injuries and $67 billion in economic costs a year.
Steve McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Maine has a secondary seatbelt enforcement law, which means a driver would have to be pulled over for another violation.
Connecticut is the only New England state that has a primary seatbelt law, which allows an officer to cite without seeing another violation. Connecticut tallied 81.6 percent in seatbelt usage last year. Vermont led New England states in seatbelt use percentages with 84.7. The others are Rhode Island, 74.7; Massachusetts, 64.8; and New Hampshire was unreported but was at 49.6 in 2004.
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