INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Public Schools' 100 new school buses have a special safety feature for the students -- seat belts.
The buses, manufactured by IC Bus, have lap-shoulder belts.
Officials with the bus company also say the new ones are more fuel efficient and are easier to maintain than current ones.
Last year, the administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Mark Rosekind, challenged school districts to add seat belts to their buses.
"I want us to concentrate on this simple, basic statement: School buses should have seat belts," Rosekind said. "Period. It should be utterly uncontroversial – there is no question that seat belts offer improved safety. Seat belts will save the lives of children who we might otherwise lose in crashes. Seat belts provide the safety those kids deserve. And yet for years, decades even, the conversation about school bus safety has gone right past what ought to happen, and straight to all the reasons it can’t happen."
IPS is one of the first in the country make changes after Rosekind's plea.
The question of having seat belts in school buses has been around for years. Westfield Washington Schools tried having seat belts in February 2015, made possible by the same company that made the belts for the new 100 buses.
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Officials think the new seatbelts will not only help with safety, but they'll also keep kids in line.
"What we do know about safety and the restraints that we have, is not only is it an opportunity to keep the students in their seats, but when students are in their seats there's a dramatic reduction in behavior issues, bullying, those types of things, so this is a great opportunity," Dr. Lewis Ferebee, IPS Superintendent said.
The new seats are designed, tested and manufactured in Westfield, Indiana.
“I applaud this initiative because it’s truly a decision that puts the wellbeing of our students first," Mayor Joe Hogsett said.
