Editorial: Seat belts for all vehicles

Monday, Nov. 12, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

The nation's drivers have come a long way since 1985, when New York became the first state to require the wearing of seat belts in cars. Today most drivers and passengers use them and not because it is the law - they have learned seat belts save lives.

We have written that seat-belt use should not be limited to cars, vans and pickups. In our view seat belts should be standard on school buses as well as on regular passenger buses.

Now Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, have proposed legislation that would require a greater use of seat belts.

Motivated by the March bus crash in Atlanta that killed five members of an Ohio university's baseball team, as well as the driver and his wife, the bill would require seat belts on buses that cross state lines.

In the Atlanta crash, many of the deaths and injuries resulted from people being thrown from the bus - a danger with any crash in which drivers and passengers are not belted in.

In our view, because seat belts have proven to be lifesavers in personal vehicles, their use should be extended to buses. The main objection is the extra cost.

But imagine how relatives of people killed or injured in bus crashes would respond to that argument.