Assembly Panel OKs Bus Seat Belt Bill : Listens to Testimony From Mother of Girl Killed in Utah Crash

The Assembly Transportation Committee, hearing emotional testimony from a Long Beach woman whose daughter recently died in a bus crash, approved a bill Wednesday to require installation of seat belts on new school buses effective next Jan. 1.

On an 8-3 vote, the bill by Assemblywoman Gloria Molina (D-Los Angeles) was sent to the Ways and Means Committee, where its prospects were uncertain.

Under the bill, about $1,800 would be added to the cost of each new school bus, which now averages $90,000, Molina said. The bill also would require operators who contract with school districts to equip their new buses with seat belts.

The measure contained no money allocation but would allow school districts to seek reimbursement from the state.

Terri Peterson, a Long Beach elementary school teacher whose 17-year-old daughter, Kristin Baker, died Dec. 30, 1985, fought for the bill. She was riding in a chartered Greyhound bus with 43 other students on a vacation when the vehicle overturned on an icy Utah road.

Peterson, her voice cracking, acknowledged that if Molina’s bill had been law when her daughter died, the Greyhound bus would not have been covered because it was chartered by a private organization, not by a school district.

Even so, she said, the bill is “a first step. You have to start somewhere.”

Anxious Wait

After the 90-minute hearing, Peterson waited anxiously while Molina and other supporters rounded up the minimum eight votes required for approval. Committee Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) cast the deciding vote, although he expressed concern that seat belts may not add to the safety of schoolchildren.

Conflicting testimony was given on whether the belts would enhance safety. Supporters, including the California Medical Assn., asserted that the belts would keep children from becoming human missiles in an accident.

Critics, including the state Department of Education, contended that seat belts would not be cost-effective and could exacerbate some injuries. Approval of the bill came as the debate over school bus safety intensified in the Capitol. Gov. George Deukmejian has taken no position on Molina’s bill, but last week he proposed spending $100 million to replace 1,300 older buses with new, safer and more fuel-efficient buses.

Last year, Deukmejian vetoed a bill by Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) that would have banned buses built before 1977, when federal safety standards on the vehicles took effect. The governor said the bill’s cost--at least $175 million--was too high.