hevs

Many of you know that i've moaned about school buses not having seat belts and have sent off letters to heaps of government people. Well i got this reply this am, does any one else agree with this??

Dear

SEAT BELTS IN COACHES

I refer you to your e-mail dated 22 August 2004, addressed to the
Minister
for Transport, regarding seatbelts in coaches. Your correspondence has
been
referred to me for reply.

This matter has been considered at both State and national level.
The
Australian Transport Council consists of the Transport Ministers
for
Commonwealth, States and Territories, which provides a forum
for
coordination of transport policy issues at a national level. The
Council’s
2001 school bus safety report concluded that travel by bus,
including
school bus, is the safest form of land-based travel, even
without
seatbelts.

Statistics show that the highest accident rates for school children
are
prior to boarding or after alighting buses. In light of this,
requiring
seat belts to be retrofitted to all buses is difficult to justify
ahead of
many other road safety programs.

The Australian Design Rules require seat belts to be fitted in
long
distance coaches. This is because they operate most of the time at
high
speed on open roads. Accordingly, many schools have developed a
policy to
ensure that only buses with seatbelts are chartered for school
excursions
and particularly for school camps.

Thank you for taking the time to write and for your interest in
road
safety.

Yours sincerely

Signed

PETER BALFE
ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Phoenixuk2oz

Well....to be honest Hevs I'd ask him to quantify/qualify his comments in real terms i.e provide the statistics
a) What percentage of children are killed as a result of busses not having seat belts.
b) What percentage seriously injured as a result of busses not having seat belts.

c) How much would it cost the state to provide seat belts in all buses

You can then make an informed decision as to whether his remarks make sense or not. The reality is Hevs...unless this evidence demonstrates a REAL problem [as opposed to perceived]...then they aint gona change the rules/law. IMHO you need the above stats to be able to determine fact from fiction.

The other thing Hevs....is to consider that morale and values don't always come into hard government thinking i.e in your opinion [and mine/others]...maybe even ONE dead child as a result of no seatbelts is one too many. The reality is that it may be less expensive for the government to be sued by the parents than it is to install all seatbelts in busses...so they could take the hardline and go down this route

Not sure if this makes sense....but go for it girl. Good luck. Keep us informed

hevs

ok will do

Phoenixuk2oz

Good on ya .....they like people with tenacity and balls. Give em wot for Hevs