Nine children injured in Hartford school bus accident

We have wrote in the past about the debate over whether school buses should be equipped with seatbelts, and an accident yesterday only adds fuel to the debate.

Last week, it was reported that nine students were injured when their school bus collided with a car at an intersection in Hartford.  Police said the accident occurred around 4:30 p.m. at the intersection of Asylum Avenue and Scarborough Street.

The Dattco bus was carrying 18 elementary school students who were on their way home from CREC University of Hartford Magnet School. Nine students and the driver of the car had to be treated for minor injuries.

At this point police have not determined a cause of the crash as both drivers have given different accounts of what happened. Police will have to rely on witness accounts, skid marks on the road and other evidence to piece together what happened.

No matter what the cause of the accident, it undoubtedly left the parents of the children involved shaken up. Parents across the state rely on bus drivers to carry their children safely to and from school.

Perhaps if buses were equipped with seatbelts parents would feel a little more comfortable about sending their children off, especially after hearing stories like this one.

As we explained in our last post on seatbelt usage on school buses, the state of Connecticut does not require school buses to carry them. Instead, most buses depend on the “compartmentalized seating standard” to keep kids safe, which has to do with the way school buses are designed.

However, after a few more accidents like yesterday’s leave school children injured, officials may think twice about their current policy.