Persuasive Essay On Seat Belt Free

“Get in car. Check! Adjust seat. Check! Adjust mirrors. Check! What comes next?” Most would say, “Buckle up!” Wearing a seat belt is a habit that most people have developed over years of riding and driving in cars. If everyone is required to buckle up, why are school buses seat belt free? Some people believe that school buses are already safe enough; nevertheless, seat belts should be required on school buses because having children buckle-up would help create a lifelong habit, state law requires the wearing of a seatbelt in all other vehicles, and wearing seatbelts would reduce the number of casualties and injuries in the case of a school bus accident.
Many people believe that school buses are already effectively safe. School bus drivers and
safety experts have said school buses are already at the pinnacle of safety, and that seat belts would have no effect in the safety of the passengers.
Nothing is perfectly safe. Accidents happen, and people are still injured and killed, even when the upmost safety precautions are taken. Safety specialists have stated that “compartmentalization” is the most effective method in protecting school bus passengers (“Seat Belts, School”). School bus seats were designed to act as cheap and effective safety system. Parents are expected to trust that a compartment bus seat is the only protection their child needs in the case of an accident. Parents want a guarantee that their child will be safe. Compartmentalization is the protection provided by the closely-spaced seats that are designed to absorb “crash energy” in an accident: “compartmentalization is a passive protection for unbelted passengers” (“Seat Belts, School”; O’Neil). Compartmentalization is not sufficient enough to protect children from the varieties of bus accidents. Parents are supposed to believe that their child is safe in a simple high-back bus seat. These seats are effective for minor crashes, but not sufficient in the case of a major accident. For compartmentalization to be effective, passengers must be in the seat, or compartment; compartmentalization only guarantees safety in a low-speed, frontal collision
(O’Neil). Compartmentalization cannot guarantee the safety of all passengers. Seat belts are a sensible investment, but people dispute that equipping school buses with seat belts is too expensive. What is more important, saving money or saving lives? The cost of installing seat belts has decreased from $10,000-$12,000 per bus to $7,000-$9,000 per bus; in actuality more money would be saved by preventing the expenses of just one injury (O'Neil). Why is it alright for school buses to only be safe enough? School buses carry one of the most precious cargos, the lives of children, so why is it acceptable to not have the upmost safety precautions for these children.
Having children buckle-up helps create a lifelong, lifesaving habit. Children tend to emulate adult like behavior: they want to do things by themselves, talk like adults, and even act like adults. Children are extremely impressionable, and habits are formed in the early stages in their life. Children are more likely to wear their seat belt when they are teenagers and adults if a buckle-up habit is created at an early age; children look up to adults and want to imitate adult actions, so if a child sees an adult wearing a seat belt the child is more likely to willing wear their seatbelt (“Top Car Seat”). It takes twenty-one days of a consistent routine or activity for it to develop into a habit. Because children follow the “monkey see, monkey do” cliché. They follow the examples set by the adults around them. Telling a child to buckle up every time they are in a vehicle will reiterate the importance of seat belts, and make buckling up second nature, but only if the adult follows through in demonstrating the procedure (“Put Seat Belts”). If society is attempting to instil the importance of seat belts, then why are seat belts not required on school buses? Telling children they have to buckle up in a car, but not on a bus confuses the child and halts the development of the lifelong buckle up habit. Buckling up on school buses would reiterate the importance of wearing a seat belt; seat belts on school buses would also continue the habit of buckling up that was in progress from an early age (O’Neil). Making an attempt to imbed the importance of seat belts is more and more difficult due to the different expectations when riding in a car or on a bus. Parents believe that seat belts on school buses would be helpful for countless reasons. In fact, 85% of parents support the requirement of seat belts on school buses (O’Neil). A buckle up habit is simple to create if it is started at a young age, and the last thing needed is a setback because children do are not required to wear seatbelts like they are in the cars they ride in more or less every day.
If state law requires the wearing of a seatbelt in all other vehicles, why are they not mandatory in school buses?
A school bus might be considered safer because it is larger, but they are not perfectly safe. Why would anyone settle for well enough? Seat belts must have an effect of safety because "seat belts have been required in passenger cars since 1968" ("Seat Belts on"). All cars are equipped with seat belts, and it is a law in all but one state to wear a seat belt. Seat belts laws are determined at a state level, so there is a diversity in laws among states. There is also a difference in the requirement of seat belts that depends on the type of vehicle. Laws have been passed in 49 states as well as Washington DC that require seat belts be worn in passenger vehicles and light trucks ("Seat Belts on"). The 49 states that require seatbelts do not necessarily have similar laws. There is a difference in the enforcement of the law along with the difference in the severity of reprimands for the infringement of the law. In Indiana for example, all passengers must be wearing a seat belt is the vehicle is in motion (Department of Motor Vehicles). There are two types of seatbelt laws that a state can enforce. A state can have a primary seat belt law or secondary seat belt law. Most states have implemented a primary seat belt law. A primary seat belt law states that drivers can be pulled over and ticketed solely on the basis a police officer observes that they are not wearing
their seat belt (Runge 67). This being said, the remainder of the states uphold a secondary seat belt law except for the one state that does not impose a seat belt law. A secondary seat belt law differs from a primary seat belt law simply by a minor variation. A secondary seat belt law states that drivers can only be ticketed for not wearing their seatbelt if they have been pulled over for a different violation (Runge 67). Seat belts laws are proving to have an effect in the decrease of injuries and death in car accidents, but yet they are not required in buses. The fact that all but five states do not require seat belts on school buses is baffling. The five states that require seat belts on all types of buses include Texas, New York, Louisiana, Florida, and California ("Put Seat Belts"). School buses are said to be the safest vehicle, and that may be, but they are not accident proof and people are still injured and even die in school bus accidents. There are different types of seat belts that can be used in vehicles, and these are two-pint and three-point lap belts. According to the article School Bus Safety Data, "Two- point lap belts are required on large buses over 10,000 pounds in Florida, New Jersey, and New York: three-point lap/shoulder [seat belts] are required by federal regulation on all newly manufactures small school buses under 10,000 pounds, but only seven states mandate their use." There are so many safety precautions enforced upon cars and other small vehicles, but not as many for school buses because they are theoretically safe enough because they are larger. School buses perhaps may be safer, but they are not invincible and passengers still get injured and fatalities still occur. Why would seat belts not be the next step in providing the finest possible safety for school bus passengers?
Nothing is perfect. People get injured and people die every day for a variety of reasons. Why would anyone not want to save a life anywhere they could? There are approximately 450,000 public school buses that travel around 4.3 billion miles, and transport about 23.5 million children (O'Neil). With all of these buses traveling this many miles, it is inevitable that there are bound to be numerous accidents. In the midst of an accident there is the high probability of injuries and in severe cases casualties. As stated by the article School Bus Safety Data, "The [National Highway Traffic Safety Association] calculated that 4% of school bus-relate injuries to children are serious, that is about 350 to 475 yearly." School buses are in a variety of accidents, such as a one vehicle accident or a multi-vehicle crash. School buses have multiple impact zones just like any other vehicle does. 51% of school transportation-related crashes involving fatalities of passengers are due to frontal impacts to the vehicle; statically speaking, the chance of fatalities is greater when the main impact of the crash is the front of the bus, and the next statistically is the sides of the bus("Traffic Safety Facts"). Fatalities due to a school bus accident are rare, but they still occur. Defenseless children die in school bus accidents, and some of these death could have been prevented with seat belts. Between 2001 and 2010 there were 363,839 fatal vehicle accidents, and of those crashes 1,236 were school transportation-related: of the 1,236 accidents there were 1,368 fatalities which figures to about 137 fatalities per year ("Traffic Safety Facts"). The death of any child is tragic. The number of fatalities due to school bus accidents can be reduced by the addition of one simple object: a seat belt! Annually, due to school bus accidents, an average of six school age children are killed("Seat Belts on"). Technology is always advancing, and everything is always being updated to be bigger, better, and faster, so why are safety conditions on school buses being overlooked? It is unacceptable to believe that safe enough is an adequate response when talking about the safety and lives of children. Providing safety may be a hassle or costly, but when it comes to the safety of children are those acceptable arguments? The result of death in an accident is reduced by 50% when seat belts are in use (Runge 67). Some may think seat belts are overrate, but a price tag cannot be put on the life of a child.
There is no reasonable argument to why seat belts should not be required on school buses. Safe enough is not an suitable justification to save money. Saying that seat belts are too expensive puts a cheap price tag on a child's life. Children are irreplaceable and their safety should not be compromised to save a little money. Seat belts on school buses would not only save lives, but it would reiterate the important buckle up habit that starts taking place at an early age. Since seat belts are require in other vehicles, it does not make sense to exclude school buses. Seat belts would be a sensible and lifesaving addition to safety requirements on school buses. Seat belts are being overlooked, and honestly there is no tolerable reason for them to be disregarded. School buses may be really safe, but there is always room for improvement; seat belts may seem expensive, but when compared to the number of lives saved the cost does not compare. Getting seat belts on school buses starts with the ambition to take action. A school board is established to ensure the education and safety of students, and it can be the first step in making seat belts required on all school buses. As said by Mahatma Gandhi, “be the change that you wish to see in the world.”