A national scale, exploratory study was conducted to collect information pertaining to the operational experiences of the school districts in the United States that operate 20-passenger or larger school buses equipped with seatbelts (lap-belts) to transport their general student population. A mail-out, mail-back questionnaire was mailed to gather the requisite information from the student transportation director or related personnel in the school districts included in the sample. The sample consisted of 814 school districts located in 15 states representing diverse cross-sections of urban and rural American society. Of the 814 school districts included in the sample, 763 were located in New York State. This is primarily due to the fact that New York State began mandating the installation (but not the use) of seatbelts on July 1, 1987. For purposes of this study, the terminology "general student population" was defined as all students that are transported daily to and from school, including handicapped and physically disabled students. This report begins with a brief overview of the issues of the installation of seatbelts in large school buses. Next, the methodology of the administration of the questionnaire is reviewed and the sample response rate is provided. The preliminary discussion of the questionnaire is followed by the interpretation of the accumulated data. Analysis of the results is discussed question by question. The results for each question are accompanied by text that points to any findings that are significant. In addition to the narratives, corollary data in graphics and/or tabular format are provided for each question. The report concludes with a brief summary and discussion of the implications and relevance of the findings as they relate to the issue of seatbelts in large school buses. A copy of the questionnaire is provided in Appendix A. (A)
Samenvatting