The articles on the opposite page highlight a huge anomaly in this state’s road safety laws.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On the one hand it is a criminal offence to travel in a car, coach or truck without wearing a seatbelt and on the other it is perfectly legal to travel in a school bus without wearing a seatbelt.
There is absolutely no difference in the vulnerability of occupants in any type of road vehicle.
For years, politicians have dithered over the problem, no doubt hindered in making a positive decision by powerful lobby groups and interest groups.
But the fact that no government of any persuasion has made the fitting of seatbelts compulsory in every school bus in the state is nothing short of scandalous.
School kids from the age of five travel in school buses that are also permitted to have standing passengers, another situation that is forbidden in other vehicles.
The excuse of expense cannot be counted as worthy of consideration from either bus owners or the government.
The state government has wasted millions of dollars over the years, especially in Sydney, on grandiose schemes that have come to nothing.
It could easily finance the fitting of seatbelts in school buses with just some of the billion dollars found in that embarrassing budget error last year.
Currowan Creek mum Sharyn Hanlon rightly asks whether kids are not considered important enough to be required to wear seatbelts on school buses.
One could only say that she was quite right.