Letters: Put safety belts on school buses

Last month’s school bus crash in Chattanooga that killed six students begs the question of why school buses in our state aren’t required to have shoulder harness seat belts.

These children became projectile missiles, and their deaths might have been spared had they been secured in their seats. It doesn’t necessarily take a crash for a child to be catapulted into the air. Slamming on the brakes or taking a sharp turn to avoid an accident can launch them as well.

Given all the concern regarding head injuries in football, where helmet-to-helmet contact occurs at much lower speeds, one would think appropriate safety measures on school buses would be of equal or greater importance for our small children.

The signs on our highways read, “Buckle Up … It’s the law in South Carolina.” Too bad that law doesn’t apply to the buses that carry our children to and from school every day.

I guess we could dress them in football helmets and shoulder pads for their daily commutes.