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The
cartoon is very witty – but the reality for our kids on the school buses
is far from funny. Crammed standing from one end of the bus to the
other their traveling conditions are dangerous and uncomfortable.
They’re literally squashed together against the windscreen at the front
– to the seats at the back. The buses transporting our kids travel
on busy 100klm/hr two-lane routes carrying, at times, over a hundred un-restrained
children with about 30 to 40 standing. These are also major inter-state
trucking routes. These buses, as well as being jammed packed, have
no structural strength – in other words, they’re likely to crush like a
baked bean can in an accident. See below a re-construction of a typical
bus “roll-over accident”
The “Bus Action Committee” was formed when a group of parents in Beaudesertshire (near Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) became increasingly horrified by the potential for disaster and totally frustrated by the politicians who ignored them. You’re probably wondering how this situation can be allowed to continue and how it came about in the first place. The following pages will answer your questions.
This picture was taken in Queenland in May 2000, it shows school children standing in a school bus. Research shows that these children would be unlikely to survive an accident! Above is very graphic footage of a bus "roll-over" - imagine these standing kids being involved in something like that!
NEVER FORGET THIS QUOTE FROM SCHOOL BUS CRASH-TESTING RESEARCH (University of California 1967):-
"These experiments have shown that, depending upon the nature and extent of passenger collision protection, school bus occupants may be killed or sustain no injury even though subjected to identical collision conditions".
All American children are seated, all travel in strongly constructed school buses, many are seat-belted. In comparison what chance does an Australian child have in "identical collision conditions" - standing unrestrained in the aisles of travelling tin cans. The quote above shows that it's the difference between life and death!
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