As more and more bus passengers are killed or injured, the government still refuses to require seatbelts on buses that travel on highways.

dogandlemon.com editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says:

“Just a few weeks ago, a teenage girl was thrown against the windscreen of a bus she was travelling in.

Today, two out of eight children were injured when a school bus crashed.

Five tourists died in a single bus accident in 2019.

Hannah Teresa Francis died after a bus overturned on Mt Ruapehu on July 28, 2018

The list goes on.”

“There’s a strong chance these deaths and injuries would not have occurred in Germany, because all buses must have seatbelts and all occupants must wear them.”

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“It’s really easy to prevent these deaths and injuries in New Zealand, too: make seatbelts compulsory on all buses that use highways. Yet the government appears to be asleep at the wheel over this issue.”

“I challenge the prime minister to watch this graphic crash test which simulates a bus rolling over. The prime minister is a mother: would she feel comfortable with her own child travelling at highway speeds without the protection of a seatbelt?”[1]

“New Zealand’s roads are particularly dangerous for buses, because they’re often narrow and winding; a perfect setup for a rollover accident.”

Matthew-Wilson, whose research into seatbelt upgrades for older vehicles was awarded by the Australian Police Journal, adds:

“There’s no reason that older buses can’t be retrofitted with seatbelts, provided it’s done properly.”

Matthew-Wilson also wants the government to ban the import of buses without Electronic Stability Control. Electronic Stability Control (ESC/ESP) helps prevent a vehicle losing control in emergencies. ESC is already compulsory on cars, but is still optional on imported buses.

However, a 2012 study by the American government, concluded that: “[If installed on heavy vehicles], we believe that ESC systems could prevent 40–56% of rollover crashes and 14% of loss-of-control crashes.”

Matthew-Wilson asks, “Stability Control has been compulsory on cars since 2015, yet new buses are still being sold without it. Why is this allowed?”

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