TWENTY Major – who cleared up at the Irish Blog awards recently, despite the ingrate’s non-appearance – thinks “TV3 news is f~$%&£* shit” after its tabloid coverage of the bus crash in Offaly yesterday in which a 15 year old boy was killed and at least 30 others injured, raising the issue of seatbelts again. But isn’t part of the answer to reducing causalties in this emotive and expensive issue not clearly staring us in the face…?In Northern Ireland, school buses don’t have seatbelts, as far as I’m aware. Sammy Wilson believes the cost is too high and would mean that “youngsters who currently get a bus to school will not get one”.
Since it’s an emotive issue, Sammy asks us to weigh up the (possibly exaggerated, but probably high) cost against the probabilty of your kid being hurt on a school bus (seriously low). It’s a fair point.
So if we’re looking for a relatively cheap, risk-reducing means to reduce child bus casualties, why don’t coachbuilders just make school buses with the seats facing backwards? We do it with baby seats in cars because we know it cushions any impact significantly.
What am I missing?
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