Local busing companies follow Wisconsin seat belt guidelines

GO Riteway Safety Director: Seat belts would not help most bus accidents

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — Wisconsin is not one of six states with school bus seat belt requirements.

Local busing companies follow state guidelines. Currently, state law exempts busing transportation over 10,000 pounds from seat belt requirements.

Go Riteway’s Safety Director says the school busing industry is one of the safest transportation industries in the nation already. He also says most fatalities involving school buses likely would not be prevented by a seat belt.

“Half of them are generally outside the vehicle. The ones that are inside the vehicle are due to point of intrusion, or point of impact. I don’t believe seat belts would have helped those children in the Chattanooga crash. There was quite a point of intrusion from that tree,” said GO Riteway Safety Director David Butcher.

Go Riteway’s Safety Director says while there is little data supporting seat belts on school buses, he does expect legislators to consider requirements in the near future.