Seat belt bill passes committee
By Mark Davis, WTNH Chief Political Correspondent on Mar 15, 2010 | In News, General Assembly | 16 feedbacks »
Hartford, Conn. (WTNH) – For the first time ever, a legislative committee has approved a bill to require seat belts in Connecticut school buses.
It comes more than two months after a 16-year old high school student was killed in a school bus crash. The state medical examiner testified that a seat belt would have saved his life.
“To receive that phone call at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, when that accident happened, and you sit back and you say to yourself; it could have been any one of us,” said Rep. Tony Guerrera (D-Transportation Committee.
The victim of the bus crash, Vikas Parikh, lived not far from Guerrera’s home in Rocky Hill.
“I agree that this may never happen again,” he said. “What if it happens tomorrow and we had a chance to change that? I don’t know what I would do with myself.”
And so a proposal that has come before the Transportation Committee nearly every year for the past two decades was passed 29-7.
“This is a fundamentally important issue to this committee and to the taxpayers of the state of Connecticut. It’s a debate that needs to take place,” said Sen. Don DeFronzo (D-Transportation Committee).
It requires all new school busses, purchased starting in 2012, to be equipped with lap and shoulder seat belts. Committee members that voted against the measure cited the cost.
“I believe that very strongly about no, and that means zero, unfunded mandates to local municipalities in this legislative session,” said Sen. Michael McLachlan (R-Transportation Committee).
But even those voting ‘no’ said they wanted to see the issue move forward.
“I am very interested in seeing this move forward to find a funding source that can be dedicated to an important proposal,” said Sen. Toni Boucher (R-Transportation Committee).
The bill now goes to the full House for a vote, but Chairman Guerrera expects some sort of change to make the estimated $8 thousand dollar per bus price tag easier to take for the towns.
16 comments
Also, who is going to be responsible for making sure all the little darlings are buckled up. Getting stuck behind a school bus is bad enough without having to wait until someone makes the rounds buckling kids up!
Here's my suggestion - reduce the number of times the bus has to stop by having the kids walk a bit and not have each one picked up at their door. Then once the groups is onboard the bus, buckle em all up at once.
Better yet - put the seatbelts on new buses and leave the old ones as they are til it's time to replace them.
PLUS....a "bus monitor" will probably have to be hired, for each bus...THEN just how much disipline will it take to make sure 40 damn kids STAY buckled up....
GOD forbid if there is a bus accident and another kid is killed NOT being belted in......like I said LAW SUIT's here we come...........
STUPID idea...............
whats next the trains and transit buses?????????????
Ahhhhhhh...the pathetic "priceless" mentality, like the Mastercard commercials........* whistles *
THIS thinking is what got us to this pathetic point in this country, from health care to education..........we cant afford anything anymore.........
NOBODY is saying the safety of the kids isnt important, but things have to be thought through in this " click-it-or ticket" world.....we also live in a world that has a price tag on EVERYTHING, so the "priceless" mentality is meaningless AND unsustainable....look around you....we are living proof now, we are living the nightmare.....
I gives me pause to think these people are in charge of our childrens education.
If you don't pass a law it will never happen because the buss companies see $$ as more valuable than a human life.
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