States put belts on school buses; new guidelines, rare crash video may spur more to do likewise

"Texas just decided that school kids should be strapped into buses equipped with lap and shoulder belts. California, Florida, Louisiana, New York and New Jersey require seat belts on new school buses, too," reports Tony Lang of Gannett News Service.

"Yet most school districts across the country don't require seat belts on school buses -- largely because of cost and low fatality rates that say the big yellow bus already is safe. But sentiment may be changing. New federal guidelines due this fall are expected to propose voluntary standards for the use of belts. That's a shift in long-standing policy."

Each year, U.S. children suffer about 17,000 injuries related to school buses, "a rate up to three times more than expected," Lang reports, citing research by Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio. And he suggests that "rare crash video from inside a Grant County, Ky., bus" could spur states to require belts. The video "shows little kids being flung to one side then the other, as drug-impaired driver Angelynna Young swerves. No one was killed in the crash. But all 17 kids were sent to hospitals . . . " (Read more)

Young pleaded guilty last month to two counts of assault, eight counts of drug possession and 15 counts of wanton endangerment. She tried to withdraw her plea this month, and denied she was high at the time of the crash, but the judge refused her request and sentenced her to 22 years in prison. The video was played at the sentencing, reports Jamie Baker-Nantz in the Grant County News. For her story and photos, click here.