Many factors at play in restraining kids

As a child passenger safety technician, I take every precaution to keep children alive. Safety belts on all buses could have benefits, yes. I support them, but you can’t pick your crash. A lap belt or improperly worn belt could do more harm than good when crash forces are involved. Emergency evacuations could be slowed down. On the other hand, passengers would not be ejected from the vehicle.

There is no easy answer, but proper restraint use in parents’ cars goes a long way toward keeping kids alive. My children rear-face in their car seats until age 4, are harnessed until 7 or 8, and boostered until 12 or when they fully five-step in an adult seat belt, which happens for most kids around age 11. My preschooler rides a small school bus harnessed, but I would not put a preschooler on a large bus because compartmentalization wouldn’t be as effective for small children.

Bethany Snyder-Morse

Elk Grove Village