ESCANABA — The debate of whether seat belts should be used on school buses has surfaced again after two buses transporting students rolled over in the past month in Ohio and Colorado. Escanaba Area Public Schools Director of Operations Amy Cseter says the issue will always be debated.

“Seat belts, it’s been debated since I’ve been here,” said Cseter. “They haven’t come out with, ‘you have to do it’.”

“They” are the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the body responsible for regulating lap and shoulder belts on school buses. It is an agency of the federal government, part of the Department of Transportation.

“We still maintain that our buses are the safest, and they’re designed that way,” said Cseter.

According to NHTSA, a school bus is the safest vehicle on the road, the most regulated vehicle on the road, and different by design. The larger school buses distribute crash forces differently than passenger vehicles.

The concept of compartmentalization protects students without wearing seat belts. Children are protected from crashes by strong, closely-spaced seats with energy-absorbing seat backs.

“Seat belts are looked at as an added safety feature,” said Cseter. “We are always striving to be as safe as we can be. We bought buses last summer and put in LED lighting, on the outside of the bus, we’ve put in cameras for safety.”

Escanaba has two buses with seat belts installed. Both are Special Education buses.

“I have an aide on those busses, so that person can help, … by making sure kids are buckled in, and if there is any kind of emergency evacuation the students have that extra help getting out.”

Smaller school busses are closer in size to passenger vehicles and must be equipped with seat belts, according to NHTSA.

Cseter wonders who will be responsible if a child decides not to wear a seat belt.

“If you put them in, will the kids wear them … if you’ve got one driver and 72 kids, how does he make sure that they all have them on?,” said Cseter. “Our policy on the buses with seat belts is … they need to put the seat belt on, or they’re not riding.”

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigations, has recommended school districts investing in new buses to provide children with the best protection available, which includes three point seat belts. Their investigations showed school buses in side-impact crashes or high-speed rollovers needed more protection than compartmentalization.

“You have a lot of people who feel strongly both ways. I’m glad we put them in our special ed buses, but we have a smaller number of kids and aides in those buses,” said Cseter.