Avon Lake college bus seat belt advocate offers testimony in advance of Condition Board of Education and learning

AVON LAKE, Ohio — Dr. Rudy Breglia, a self-described “citizen advocate” for lap-shoulder seat belts in university buses, has been using his mission to any corporation that will pay attention to his tale. Success are beginning to build.

Breglia has affected numerous university districts to start out to order the seat belts as they buy and switch buses. But now he has had the prospect to show up prior to the State Board of Schooling in Columbus to give testimony as to why seat belts need to be standard equipment in all school buses.

Breglia gave his testimony before the board Jan. 11. Right here it is, edited for length and space:

“I am a citizen advocate for protective lap-shoulder seat belts (exact same as autos) in school buses with no commercial interest. Current Ohio school bus basic safety options are insufficient to defend young children totally.

“Every yr, six to seven little ones (9 in 2016) are senselessly killed as travellers in college bus crashes, and more than 5,000 are hurt.

“On Nov. 21, 2016, we all acquired a ‘wake-up call’ that confirms this inadequacy, when a Chattanooga university bus without seat belts rolled about, killed six harmless kids and wounded 26 — but not the seat-belted driver. In Ohio, college bus drivers are demanded to have seat belts because 1986.

“Today, my main objectives are to inform the State Board of Education to children’s present-day risk during school bus transportation and how seat belts can essentially get over that hazard. I’m hoping that the board will permit me to operate with your committee that addresses pupil security matters to make a resolution that supports seat belt set up trials identical to those people promulgated by several Ohio towns, these kinds of as the Town of Lorain.

“Your resolution would stimulate Ohio faculty districts to perform trials like people in (the City of) Avon Lake and (the Metropolis of) Hudson and possibly adhere to the present nationwide pattern and location seat belts in all their new substitution buses like (the Metropolis of) Beachwood now requires.

“I’m addressing the board based mostly on your management function and your broad responsibility for scholar security and pupil transportation.

“Two federal companies, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, and numerous security/clinical businesses such as the Countrywide Basic safety Council advise seat belts in college buses.

“I know that we all want the most secure type of transportation for our small children and realize the significant, essential and recognized added protection gain and substantial enhancement in college student habits that seat belts have played in faculty buses.

“In a college bus crash, unbelted kids come to be airborne, are ejected from a bus or fly freely inside the cabin to strike other little ones or inside bus structures, specially when the bus rolls about or has a ‘side crash’ exactly where little ones have completely no protection.

“A the latest 10-year North Carolina analyze discovered that these types of university bus crashes account for a single-third of all their crashes and deliver much more than 80 per cent of the injuries.

“School districts and communities are collaborating in large-stakes gambling each and every day as youngsters are despatched flying down the freeway at 70 mph with out protective seat belts in university buses with basic safety options centered on a flawed 1970s protection theory.

“High-velocity journey is a typical incidence in college everyday living, this sort of as sports and area trips, that doesn’t make any sense to do devoid of seat belts and signifies a disaster ready to materialize. From a litigation standpoint … Ohio college districts face limitless compensatory destruction award liability possibility from college student accidents as a considerable extra price tag following a crash.

“Communities that have experienced a tragic loss from a college bus accident will normally arrange fundraisers for the survivors, honor the useless, construct memorials and move rules to put in seat belts in their buses. Even so, all these reactions give minimal comfort and ease that will come too late for all anxious.

“Communities will need to finish the ’50-yr debate’ on whether or not seat belts are effective and act. The installation of seat belts can really direct to a college district’s value price savings, these types of as reduced insurance plan rates, improved driver retention and a lot less driver distraction, with affiliated lowered crashes and decreased litigation costs. Monetary guidance for trials is accessible.”

Breglia offered source products to the board and claimed he is out there for any queries or additional shows to audiences or men and women, in person or by cellphone.

“Like fireplace extinguishers,” Breglia stated, “seat belts depict an totally required precaution to steer clear of catastrophic reduction. The set up of seat belts in school buses should really be a priority for all of us. Seat belts conserve lives.’”

For much more details on Breglia’s marketing campaign for faculty bus seat belts, he can be contacted at [email protected].

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