I’m not sure everyone gets them from the morning bus ride, though.

Related content: Mums call for seatbelts

In kindy, I loved jumping on the bus in the morning.

I had probably the nicest bus driver in the world (I bumped into him when I was stranded in Canberra years later, and he gave me a free bus ride home; thanks Phil!).

I loved talking to the kids already on the bus and waiting to see who would be getting on at each stop.

Bus rides were the social events book-ending the school day, and, as an extroverted kid, I was in heaven.

As a bit of an anxious extrovert, though, I found some of the bends and embankments on our rural roads to be a source of angst, even at age six.

Skid marks, tribute crosses and damaged guard rails were clearly visible as the bus careened around corners.

Extra-deep ruts on unsealed roads bumped us into the windows and tossed us into the aisles.

Hearing the bus roar and feeling it shudder as it tried to get up to speed on the highway was an awe-inducing experience.

Having had “click – clack, front and back” drummed into my brain fairly thoroughly by this point, I couldn’t understand why our precariously high vehicle didn’t have anywhere to buckle in to.

Particularly after my friends’ bus driver was done six times over the blood alcohol limit on the way to school one morning.

Over 20 intervening years, various proposals and funding models at State and Federal levels to fit school buses with seat belts have been rolled out – and unbuckled. 

As a result, according to Judy Newton of the Isolated Children's Parents' Association, NSW is the only state left with concerns about regional school buses not being fitted with seat belts. 

The NSW State Government has committed an additional $29 million in the 2017-18 budget to ensure that all buses travelling on dedicated regional school routes will have seatbelts by December 2019.

This is ahead of the previous schedule, which aimed to have them fitted by 2023.

My inner six-year-old is breathing a sigh of relief.

Zoe Cartwright