Beaumont Superintendent Calls for Seat Belts in School Buses

Four months after two students were killed in a bus wreck, Beaumont, Texas, school officials are asking the district board to approve outfitting 30 new school buses with seat belts.

Superintendent Carrol Thomas said she will recommend buying 10 new buses with seat belts and adding belts to 20 others bought in June.

“I think this is an appropriate thing to do in light of what happened,” Thomas said. “And I don’t think that we need to be waiting for the Legislature or someone to come down and make us or tell us what to do.”

The state does not require seat belts in school buses.

Alicia Bonura, 18, and Ashley Brown, 16, were killed in the March 29 accident that happened on a rainy day as the Beaumont West Brook High School girls soccer team traveled to a game in Humble.

The charter bus flipped onto its side and skidded into a ditch when the driver swerved to avoid a load of plastic insulation that fell from another vehicle, authorities said.

Another girl who was ejected from the bus had to have her arm amputated.

Beaumont school officials will also propose at a July 27 school board meeting that district buses be used for all trips of 125 miles or less, or about 95 percent of school outings. Out-of-town trips would have first priority to use the buses with seat belts, Thomas said.

Officials said the addition of three-point lap-shoulder seat belts would cost about $10,000 per bus. They would also reduce bus capacity from 77 passengers to 50.

Transportation director Clifton Guillory said money the district saves by not using charter buses would offset the cost of installing seat belts.

The district typically replaces as many as 20 of its 195 buses each year, officials said. The total jumped to 50 this year to allow for the 30 that will replace charter buses.

Parents of the students involved in the accident have formed a chapter of the National Coalition for School Bus Safety. Spokesman Steve Forman said the group supports the seat belt proposal.

“Had the bus had seat belts and safer windows, properly designed to limit ejection, we think all 23 students and two coaches would have walked away from this accident with minor injuries, at most,” Forman said in a recent statement.

Marion and Joanne Bonura, whose daughter was killed in the accident, have sued the charter bus company, Sun Travel, of Beaumont, and bus driver, Lorri Ann White, 41, of Silsbee. The suit alleges the bus was unsafe and the driver negligent.

A preliminary investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety found that the bus driver and the driver of the truck that lost its load contributed to the wreck.

The report said the bus driver contributed to the accident by “taking faulty evasive action” and having “impaired visibility.” The driver of the pickup, contributed by failing to “secure his load,” the report said.

Information from: The Beaumont Enterprise, www.southeasttexaslive.com.