From: Bill Kozar
Columbus
As serious as her accident was, I was glad to hear that Lynley Arnholt was returning to school. There’s been a lot of talk lately about school bus safety, primarily seatbelts on buses. It’s great that some school districts are installing seatbelts on their buses. It’s a great safety idea for inside the bus. But what about making things safer outside the bus?
Just what is a school bus? A school bus is nothing more than a multi-passenger compartment on a truck frame. A large truck frame. What do we see on all large trucks? An ICC bar. The ICC bar is the steel frame work hanging down at the rear of a truck or trailer. It’s designed to prevent or lessen the impact of a vehicle accidentally driving into the back of, or under the bumper, frame and rear wheels of a truck. It’s been required for many years now.
I didn’t do the research into when the requirement for trucks to have one went into effect. But since it’s required on large trucks and trailers, and a bus is basically a truck with a large passenger compartment, why are school buses not required to have them? That might be something for a proactive Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board to seriously consider. With an ICC bar, the seriousness of the accident Lynley was involved in could have been lessened.
