Q. How are children currently protected during school bus accidents?
The current form of safety protection for children on school buses is compartmentalization. This passive form of restraint requires padded school bus seats that are closely spaced. In a frontal collision, children impact the seat in front of them, which absorbs their energy. Compartmentalization was standardized on school buses in 1977. The SafeGuard FlexSeat is a high back seat, which NHTSA, as well as internal testing at SafeGuard, confirms is the best approach for keeping students inside the seating compartment.

Q. How does compartmentalization protect children?
In the event of a frontal crash, the padded seatbacks yield to absorb the force of the unrestrained child who impacts the seatback. If the child is partially in the aisle or taller than the seatback, compartmentalization offers less effective protection in a frontal collision. In the event of a rollover or side-impact collision, compartmentalization offers virtually no protection for children. Children are likely to be thrown out of their seats, and injuries are likely to occur.

The 1999 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Special Investigation Report concludes: “Current compartmentalization is incomplete in that it does not protect school bus passengers during lateral impacts with vehicles of large mass and in rollovers, because in such accidents, passengers do not always remain completely within the seating compartment.”

Q. What has changed since compartmentalization was implemented that we need lap-shoulder belts on school buses?
Since 1980, travel on US highways has nearly doubled. The nation’s population has risen 27 percent; heavy truck registrations have increased by 61 percent; heavy truck vehicle-miles traveled have risen by 102 percent, and passenger vehicle-miles traveled have gone up by 87 percent. Yet the highway system has only been expanded by about three percent over the same period. In this new era of heavy traffic on US highways, school buses share roads with more heavy trucks and passenger vehicle traffic.

School buses are also used more often for school trips and sporting events, requiring travel on interstates and highways. This increases the likelihood that there will be a high-speed accident. All of these factors together result in a potential for more deadly collisions on school buses.

Q. What is SmartFrame?
SmartFrame® technology, introduced by SafeGuard in 2002, is standard on the FlexSeat.
With SmartFrame, in a frontal crash, students are belted to the independent inner frame of the seat, which pivots forward several degrees to separate from the outer seatback. The padded outer frame remains in position to absorb the energy of any unbelted children from the seat behind. This technology enables FlexSeat to observe the full spirit of FMVSS 222 compartmentalization, while providing the additional protection of lap-shoulder belts. Even an unrestrained child receives the same full compartmentalization protection, regardless of whether the child in front is restrained.