UPDATED: There are renewed calls for seatbelts on school buses, after two buses crashed at Maclean on the north coast this morning.
Police say one bus slammed into the back of the other, after it slowed for a turning car on the morning school run.
A total of 29 children were onboard the buses – eight were treated by paramedics at the scene, and a 10-year-old girl was taken to Maclean Hospital for suspected spinal injuries.
Neither bus had seatbelts and Greens MP Cate Faehrmann says it’s time they were mandatory.
“NSW and Victoria are the only states that don’t have mandatory seat belts, most of the other states acted after a fatal bus crash, lets not wait that long”
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my daughter was 1 of the ones with very minor injuries, i believe that if seatbelts were installed it may have been alot worse, causing more children to have been taken to hospital , yes this was an accident pure and simple, these kids were safer in the bus than what they would have been in a car,
My good friend’s sister was one of the students in the crash who escaped with minor injures and I just wanted to say that she is extreamly lucky and amazing and we are all lucky that no one was seriously injured.
It would be interesting to find out the number of accidents and injuries in NSW and Victoria compared to those states who still don’t have seatbelts in buses. I remember when I rode the bus as a child, we even discussed and turned down the idea of having seatbelts. We enjoyed the freedom of bouncing around from seat to seat talking to everybody. It would be quite difficult to enforce each child to stay in their seat but could also be beneficial.