School Bus Safety Bill Passes in Legislature

As the Legislature rushed toward adjournment Friday, Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) won passage of a bill tightening statewide standards for school bus safety.

The bill requires all California school buses to meet strict federal motor vehicle safety standards by 1991 and penalizes school districts that are slow to comply.

“It’s time to rid the state of unsafe school buses that are nothing more than coffins on wheels,” Robinson told the Assembly as his bill achieved final passage and was sent to Gov. George Deukmejian.

The Department of Education has said that California has about 6,500 school buses in use that don’t meet federal safety standards. According to the legislative analyst’s office, about 2,360 of these buses are more than 20 years old and “potentially beyond their service lives.”

If Deukmejian approves the measure, all school buses that don’t meet federal safety standards after next July 1 will have to carry a sign saying they do not conform with the guidelines.

Such vehicles, according to the law, “shall bear a sign on each side of the school bus which states ‘this bus does not meet federal safety standards’ in the same-size letters as the designation of ‘SCHOOL BUS.’ ”

Robinson, in an Assembly floor speech Thursday night, told his colleagues that this provision of his bill is designed to shame school board members into prompt action in upgrading their school buses.

“If parents see a school bus with those (unsafe) signs on them, you’d better believe they’ll be showing up at the school board meetings demanding action,” Robinson said.

Robinson said, however, that he thinks most school boards would upgrade their school buses before 1991 because they wouldn’t want the vehicles driving around with such large signs on them.

Another aspect of the Robinson bill is designed to settle the debate over whether seat belts are advisable for school buses. The bill requires the California Highway Patrol and the state Department of Education to jointly study the issue and report to the Legislature by Jan. 15.