NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/CLARKSVILLENOW) – A bill that would require seat belts on Tennessee school buses has advanced barely as a child who was injured in a deadly Chattanooga bus crash looked on.
Canasia Williams, an 11-year-old fifth-grader at Woodmore Elementary, hugged her grandmother after lawmakers voted 9-7 to advance the bill.
Williams hurt her hand and suffered a concussion when she was thrown to the floor during a school bus crash in November last year that killed six Chattanooga children.
Costs and fear of restraints trapping kids in a burning bus or one that had been submerged in water were part of the debate during the House Transportation Committee meeting Tuesday.
The bill would require that all new school buses after July 2019 be equipped with safety belts.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.