ROBERTSON COUNTY, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Nearby Robertson County recently added seat belts to some of the district’s school buses, according to WKRN News 2.
Robertson County has four full-size buses that have been fitted with three-point lap and shoulder belts.
They have also been approved to retrofit two more buses with seat belts. The hope is to add even more in the future.
Would you be willing to pay higher taxes to add seat belts to school buses? Let us know in the poll below (may take a few seconds to load):
[ss-promo op_id=”549291″ op_guid=”9618a5ae-71dd-41b5-87e4-0cf86051f356″ routing=”hash”]
Robertson County Director of Schools Chris Casey told News 2 the supervisor of transportation and his department applied a grant from the state to pay for the new seat belts.
Students were able to get on the buses Wednesday to see how the seat belts work. The new school buses are also equipped with multiple cameras throughout the bus.
In May 2018, the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates transportation disasters, approved a recommendation saying all new large school buses be equipped with both lap and shoulder seat belts.
A Tennessee bill to require seat belts in new school buses has failed twice since, due in large part to the estimated $12.9 million more in annual costs to school districts and $2.2 million in yearly state costs.