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Nashville, TN (WSMV) — During a press conference on Wednesday it was announced the school bus involved in Tuesday’s deadly crash in Meigs County did not have seatbelts.
There have been multiple pushes to mandate them in Tennessee, none of them have passed.
Tennessee Representative Susan Lynn said they received a lot of opposition when they tried to pass those bills from school boards who felt buses were safer without them.
“Let me tell you the driver of the school bus wears a seatbelt,” Lynn said. “The only people on the school bus not in a seatbelt are the children.”
A grant program was setup in Tennessee with $3 million for schools that want to put seatbelts on new buses.
Lynn says she expects more schools to ask for that grant money following Tuesday’s deadly crash.
You cannot retrofit a school bus with seatbelts. it has to be a new school bus and that’s because of the engineering,” Lynn said.
“It costs $8,500 to put seatbelts on a school bus, so there’s lots of money available, and we hope school districts will come forward if you’re ordering school buses right now include seatbelts.”
Lynn says more money will also likely be added to the fund soon.
“I spoke to the Speaker of the House about that today and he is in favor of putting more money into that fund so we can just keep that fund going,” Lynn said. “So please, school districts, apply for this money and put seatbelts on school buses.”
Lynn is working to come up with an official name for the grant program but says any school that’s interested can reach out to Tennessee’s Department of Education and ask about the grant fund for school bus seatbelts.
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