Most don’t wear a seatbelt on a bus in spite of the lack of airbags.

Submitted by Calimarispirit t3_11don50 in Showerthoughts

Very curious about whether its related to people feeling safer in a larger vehicle that could plow through almost any other, or if people just don’t care and know that most cops don’t look /care about seatbelt laws on buses.

Like, I bet few to no buses have ever been stopped by a cop asking to check and make sure everyone passenger is buckled.

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justamon22 t1_ja9vy76 wrote

Interesting. Are you American?

In my experience, most buses in America don’t even have seatbelts

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MicrosoftContin t1_ja9z6z3 wrote

Canada too, me from there.

It is described as not a passenger vehicle and therefore does not require seat belts. The protection is from taller soft seats.

Also trying to convince 50 sugar-filled kids to seatbelt up and sit calmly is not possible.

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justamon22 t1_jaaci85 wrote

Lol the more I think about it the more I feel that maybe these things should have seatbelts

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vid_23 t1_jaa0w1y wrote

I live in mid Europe and I don't think I've seen a single bus with seat belts on, apart from those that travel across the entire country on the highway

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justamon22 t1_jaacd5g wrote

Oh okay I thought this was a region difference and that maybe public transportation had seatbelts elsewhere. Yeah the only buses I’ve seen with seatbelts are ones that travel really long distances. Never public one’s though

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DevinBelow t1_jaa1zuc wrote

It's basically what you said. Buses are generally, on most city roads, the biggest vehicle on the road, are highly visible, high off the ground, and have large hard seats to protect against impact. The reason we wear seatbelts in cars is because of how many people were killed in vehicle accidents that could have been prevented by wearing seatbelts. That same thing is not true about fatalities on buses. Not very many people die in bus crashes every year, so we don't need a law protecting us from it.

Now, passenger buses on the highway are different. You are up against larger vehicles (trucks, other buses, etC), BUT I will say, if something happens and that bus slides off the road into a river or lake, it's going to be a lot easier to evacuate everyone if everyone is not strapped into the bus...but obviously there is a trade off there. Most Greyhound type buses do have the seatbelt option available anyway, so you can choose which you would rather risk. (I'd rather fly.)

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Jaduardo t1_jacvllk wrote

School busses too! For some reason every other young parent has a “Baby On Board” sticker then sends their 4 year old to school in a bus with no safety features at all.

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AnthrallicA t1_jaa92w0 wrote

Seatbelts protect you from the full force of the airbag. A bus equipped with only airbags would injure and kill a lot more people than a bus with neither seatbelts or airbags.

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Scary-Preference6821 t1_jaafszk wrote

The size of a moving body impacts how much damage it takes in a collision scenario

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