Road safety advocates in favour of mandatory seatbelts on buses

A road safety advocate says all buses should be required by law to have seatbelts, following a recent school bus crash. What do you think?

A road safety advocate has come out in favour of all Victorian buses being required by law to include seatbelts in the wake of the school bus crash on the Western Freeway this month.

Seatbelts prevented an “absolute tragedy” when a bus full of Loreto College students was involved in a collision in Bacchus Marsh on September 21.

No buses or coaches are required by law to have seatbelts in Victoria, unless there is a seat directly facing a front windscreen.

Passengers must, however, wear seatbelts if they are available.

Road safety advocate Donald Gibb said he would be in favour of requiring all buses to include seatbelts.

He called the Loreto bus crash “miraculous” for the lack of fatal injuries caused in the incident.

“Absolutely miraculous,” Mr Gibb said, “in that had it not been for the seatbelts, we would have had an absolute tragedy on our hands.

“I think in effect it’s a marvellous endorsement of the value of seatbelts, and it’s surprising that there’s still a number of Australians and Victorians who are found to be not wearing seatbelts.”

A school bus carrying 32 people flipped on the Western Highway in Bacchus Marsh. Photo: Brendan Beckett

The federal transport department’s most recent road trauma report, released in May, revealed 154 of the 723 vehicle occupant fatalities in Australia in 2020 were not wearing a seatbelt — an increase from the previous three years.

Since July 2013, all new free rural and regional school buses in Victoria have been fitted with seatbelts: PTV also replaces at least 90 of those buses each year.

As of June 2022, there were 1,178 of 1,367 dedicated free regional school buses across Victoria with seatbelts installed.

The Victorian transport department said that as a result, bus seatbelt rates had risen from 43 per cent to 80 per cent.

“The majority of fatalities in rural Victoria are in 100km speed zones,” Mr Gibb said.

“Then you’ve got the conditions of the roads, and as a consequence, any incident at even 80km/h it’s absolutely essential that you wear the seatbelt.

“Rural drivers are exposed unlike a metropolitan or provincial city.”

Mr Gibb added that any measure that reduced the likelihood of severe injury would benefit the state’s health system.

“There’s no question that even a minor accident could involve a lot of cost in terms of ambulances transporting injured people to hospital,” he said.

“We tend to forget what this is doing to our health system – and let’s face it, our health system is under enormous pressure.”

Public Transport Users Association Ballarat branch convener Ben Lever said the Loreto bus crash was a “timely reminder” that everyone should wear seatbelts.