What You Should Think About When Putting Your Kid on a School Bus

School starts and the yearly discussion of seat belts in school buses starts. Doug Kelly of First Student of Montana was on Dominick In The Morning talking about school buses today.

How safe are the school buses in Bozeman? Kelly says First Student of Montana school buses are one of the safest vehicles you can ride in.

I know other cities have seat belts in their buses. Why doesn't Bozeman? Kelly said the buses at First Students are very safe.

"But they would be even safer if they had seat belts," I said.

Kelly pointed out that even if they had seat belts in the buses some of the kids might take them off. So it really doesn't matter if they have them or not.

"That's goofy," I said, not a good reason for not having them in the buses.

Kelly answered, saying it is up to the school board. If they want seat belts we will have seat belts.

The contract is about to be up, and it would be a great time for the people of Bozeman to tell the school board we want seat belts.

I lived in Beaumont, Texas, which is now underwater. Buses had no seat belts. A school bus crashed. Four children died. They were flung around the bus and some even out the window. For weeks we had grieving parents talking about this tragedy.

If they had seat belts, it was felt more would have lived. They would not have been thrown out the windows. Guess what. They now have seat belts in the school buses. I told Kelly and my listeners that we shouldn't wait until some child dies to get the belts.. Bozeman should put seat belts in now.

I am going to be inviting school board members on my show. Maybe we can get it done or find out why it isn't happening.

Dominick