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School Buses and Seat Belts

Transport Canada currently applies 37 federal safety standards to the design and construction of school buses manufactured in or imported into Canada. These standards address such safety features as brake systems, lighting, emergency exits, seat strength and padding, and tires.

Federal standards currently call for high­backed seats made of soft, energy-absorbing materials to retain occupants in their place in the event of an accident. Information from all types of school bus collisions demonstrates that the current school bus design provides a high level of protection to occupants.

Based on its accident research analysis, Transport Canada has determined that seat belts may actually adversely affect the safety of children on school buses. For example, school bus crash tests conducted by the department revealed that lap­belted occupants would be more likely to sustain serious head and neck injuries than would unbelted occupants in frontal collisions.

The department also believes that combination lap and shoulder belts could pose problems, because they cannot be adjusted to safely restrain smaller children and any slackness could injure a child. In addition, these seat belts would require the presence of stiff seats for installation, which could cause injury to an unbelted child.

To ensure that safety regulations provide a high level of protection to school bus occupants, Transport Canada continually analyses school bus accident data and reviews standards regularly to take into account emerging safety-related issues.

Date modified:
2012-01-24

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