The Texas Senate on Wednesday passed legislation requiring three-point seat belts be installed on newly purchased school buses across the state.
, authored by Sen. , D-Houston, cleared the chamber in a 25-6 vote following strong pushback from one Republican who suggested seat belts make buses less safe.
鈥淪eat belts save lives,鈥� Garcia said on the floor.
The Legislature passed similar legislation 鈥� called 鈥� in 2007. But the requirements were contingent on funding, and the law left school districts to decide whether to apply for state money earmarked for the effort. Virtually no school districts applied, , leaving buses across Texas belt-less.
Garcia鈥檚 bill would require seat belts on all buses purchased in 2017 or later and would not allow schools to opt out.
Fifty-five people died on school buses between 2003 and 2012, , and two children 鈥� neither wearing seat belts 鈥� when a crash sent a Houston school bus plummeting from an overpass. A crash this month in Lumberton, outside of Beaumont, , but no one died. That bus had seat belts.
Garcia's bill passed over the strong objections of Sen. , R-Rockwell, who called it an unfunded mandate and said seat belts, while effective in cars, protect bus riders only in a "limited number of direct head-on crashes at high speed.鈥�
Hall suggested that seat belts could trap kids trying to evacuate a bus following a crash.
鈥淒o we really want to raise the risk level of children in school buses that just sounds good and feels good, and has unintended consequences?鈥� Hall asked. "We will actually be harming, killing more children than we would save."
Garcia shrugged off that criticism and cited a recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that said 鈥渟chool buses should have three-point seat belts. Period.鈥�
A to Garcia's bill is scheduled for a committee hearing on Thursday.
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