REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
SCHOOL BUS SAFETY SUMMIT
WASHINGTON, D.C.
JULY 11, 2007
9:30 AM
Good morning. I want to thank Administrator Nason for that kind introduction,
and for convening this School Bus Safety Summit. This forum is a reflection of
the passion she brings every day to the mission of keeping people safe on our
roads and highways.
Nowhere is that interest stronger than when it comes to protecting our children.
Every school day, 25 million children across the United States board the big
yellow buses to head to class. Even now, during summer recess, buses carry
thousands of children every day on field trips and adventures. There were
several at the roll-out of the new 787 Dreamliner that I attended on Sunday in
Seattle.
I can still vividly picture the first time my oldest daughter, Tammy, rode the
bus to school. We stood together at the corner, her little hand clasped tightly
in mine, until the bus arrived. My heart clutched as I watched her climb the
steps and disappear into what seemed like a huge cavern with her schoolmates. I
cried as the bus pulled away... by the third child, my reaction was a little
more celebratory.
With Tammy, I waited anxiously through the rest of the day, praying that the bus
would deliver her back to me safely. I was fortunate. It always did.
And I wasn’t alone. The statistics tell us that school buses are the safest form
of transportation on our Nation’s highways. That’s important.
Children are safer on the bus than they are walking to school or riding their
bikes. They actually are nearly eight times safer in a school bus than riding
with their own parent in the family car.
So the question is not if the fatality and injury rates on school buses are low,
because they are low.
In an average year, out of millions of trips, about 6,500 school bus riders are
injured in crashes, and approximately six are killed. Each of these precious and
irreplaceable children is too much, isn’t it?
So the question we should ask is how we can make this number lower still, so
that no parent ever has to hear the heartbreaking news that the cherished child
they sent off in the bus in the morning is never coming home. I remember placing
the call to Governor Riley after the tragic Huntsville crash that killed four
students, and the heartbreak I heard in the Governor’s voice that day.
It makes me determined to find the answer, even if it requires opening up old
decisions, and challenging old assumptions.
Three decades ago, after a great deal of debate, the federal government said
“no” to seat belts on school buses as a passive restraint system. For a variety
of very valid reasons, it was decided to design safety into the bus and seat
structure, relying on what we know as “compartmentalization” was the best
approach.
The best analogy I have heard to explain this concept is that it is like eggs in
a carton. The closely spaced and padded design of the seats protects our
children if the bus is involved in a crash.
But several states have revisited the school bus safety issue in recent years.
Five have decided to put seat belts on their school buses; others have decided
against it. That is often how our system works best – with the states taking the
lead and testing new ideas and showing the nation what works, and what does not.
We know that seat belts work in passenger cars and light trucks, and save many
lives. They are the most effective piece of life-saving technology ever designed
for transportation, the absolute most effective. NHTSA estimates that we saved
over 15,000 lives last year because a near record 81 percent of Americans were
wearing their seat belts
That is a big change from 1976, when less than 20 percent of Americans were
buckling up, and kids were tumbling around in the back of the station wagon
wherever the vehicle’s momentum took them. I can remember that trip from the
Marine Base to Arizona.
Today, the first thing my older grandchildren do when they get in the car is
find their belts. Even the youngest know they are going to be buckled in their
child and infant seats.
I am grateful, because these restraints made a big difference in the recent
crash my daughter, Tammy, and her family were involved in. The car was totaled,
but they all walked away with only minor bruising thanks to seat belts and air
bags.
We use seat belts to protect our families in our own vehicles, so it seems
counterintuitive to let these vulnerable children ride in school buses without
similar protection. And I have to wonder if we are sending a confusing message.
We owe it to our children to look at this issue with fresh eyes. All of us need
to ask this question – and this forum is the perfect place for this: Are we
doing everything we can to make the ride to and from school as safe as possible?
With that in mind, it is time to look at belts on buses. I am willing to make
the argument one way or the other; but first, I want to be absolutely certain I
am defending the right policy for the right reasons. If there are engineering or
other issues that you will discuss here today, we are very open to hearing them.
But our first priority must be the safety of our children. So I thank you for
being here today for what I hope will be open and productive discussions about
the potential effectiveness of seat belts on school buses, and the challenges
any change would pose to schools and the safety of our roads.
Now is the time to start the bus rolling.
# # #
Briefing
Room
