3 ms·

To top it off, getting in a taxi in NY for instance is a bit scary. The first time in one it was a wild ride. I think people expect taxi drivers to get in less

To top it off, getting in a taxi in NY for instance is a bit scary. The first time in one it was a wild ride. I think people expect taxi drivers to get in less accidents because they are so seasoned. They can come within inches of other vehicles and dangers but with an indy 500 driving skill. It seems like driving on the edge like this would encourage others to use a seat belt but alas when you have 3 people piled in the car for a short ride it gets overlooked. It really should be a standard to wear a seat belt. Only kids school buses can get away with not wearing one and that is primarily because a school bus is so huge that others impacting it does little, and if a school bus driver had to seat belt all the kids it would take forever and the trip would be over before it started.

coliveira 11y ago
My kid's school bus requires seat belts (in NJ). Maybe because he's in kinder garden, but they really take the time to do it for all kids.
- eru 11y ago
  Funny enough, physically school buses are the vehicles that require seat belts the least. But politically probably the easiest to require seat belts in.
  - kedean 11y ago
    Yup, many states have 'click it or ticket' laws, yet school buses have no seat belts. The argument I heard growing up was that its 'actually more dangerous to wear one on a school bus'. I was never given a real justification to that, though. My adult assumption is that it's simply too expensive for cash-strapped school districts to upgrade, and the legislatures passing seatbelt laws don't want to increase school budgets to allow those upgrades.
    - hollerith 11y ago
      Here is my guess as to the real reason those school buses have no seat belts: there is of course always at least one adult on the bus to supervise the children. If the bus had seat belts and one of the children were injured or killed while not buckled in, the employer of the supervising adult would face legal liability for neglecting to ensure that the child was buckling in. Specifically, a complaint that the bus should have had belts can be met with the reply, "But that's the way school buses have always been." In contrast, there is no similarly-reasonable-sounding reply to the complaint, "If only the supervising adult had done his job and ensured that the kid was buckled in!"

coliveira 11y ago

My kid's school bus requires seat belts (in NJ). Maybe because he's in kinder garden, but they really take the time to do it for all kids.

eru 11y ago
Funny enough, physically school buses are the vehicles that require seat belts the least. But politically probably the easiest to require seat belts in.
- kedean 11y ago
  Yup, many states have 'click it or ticket' laws, yet school buses have no seat belts. The argument I heard growing up was that its 'actually more dangerous to wear one on a school bus'. I was never given a real justification to that, though. My adult assumption is that it's simply too expensive for cash-strapped school districts to upgrade, and the legislatures passing seatbelt laws don't want to increase school budgets to allow those upgrades.
  - hollerith 11y ago
    Here is my guess as to the real reason those school buses have no seat belts: there is of course always at least one adult on the bus to supervise the children. If the bus had seat belts and one of the children were injured or killed while not buckled in, the employer of the supervising adult would face legal liability for neglecting to ensure that the child was buckling in. Specifically, a complaint that the bus should have had belts can be met with the reply, "But that's the way school buses have always been." In contrast, there is no similarly-reasonable-sounding reply to the complaint, "If only the supervising adult had done his job and ensured that the kid was buckled in!"