Bill to Equip School Buses With Safety Belts Signed

Gov. Gray Davis on Wednesday signed legislation requiring safety lap belts and shoulder harnesses on all new school buses starting in 2002, but giving California an emergency exit if the federal government prohibits such restraints.

Davis signed the bill three weeks after the National Transportation Safety Board concluded lap and shoulder belts offer no extra safety on school buses and may even cause harm in certain crashes.

Signing of the bill (AB 15) capped a tenacious campaign by Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-Baldwin Park) to provide an extra measure of safety for more than 1 million California children who ride the vehicles to and from school.

Effective Jan. 1, 2002, every new school bus purchased or leased for use in California must be equipped with a combination of lap and shoulder belts for each passenger. Buses transporting elementary students would receive first priority.

Aware that the federal government is studying how to make young passengers safer in school buses, Gallegos included an exit clause in the legislation that would prohibit the installation of lap and shoulder belts if the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration specifically forbids them.

The federal agency has been studying seat belts and other restraining mechanisms for school buses and is expected to issue its findings next summer, well in advance of the effective date of Gallegos’ bill.

Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board, a related agency, announced its own study and recommended against the lap and shoulder belts. Among other things, it found that bus seats were too slippery and flat for belt restraints to be effective.

Davis he said he signed the bill with the understanding that Gallegos will introduce a follow-up bill to “accommodate the specific findings and recommendations of the upcoming federal study,” whatever they might be.

Despite the potential threat of the federal report, Gallegos said the new law puts California “light years ahead of other states.”

Although New York and New Jersey long have required safety belts on school buses, the California Legislature for decades had refused to pass such a requirement. School districts complained of increased costs, and studies tended to show lap belts to be of limited benefit in rollovers and broadside collisions.

Davis, hurrying to clear his desk of scores of bills by the Oct. 10 deadline for his action on them, signed and vetoed several other bills.

Davis endorsed several bills supported by his political allies in organized labor, including a measure to crack down on employers whose willing violation of safety standards results in the death or serious injury of workers.

The workplace safety measure (AB 1127) by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), which was substantially amended in the face of opposition by business, will expose violators, especially repeat offenders, to heavy criminal penalties and civil fines.

Currently, an employer who willfully violates worker safety laws or regulations intended to prevent death or injury can be charged with a misdemeanor and fined a maximum $70,000. The new law imposes a maximum $1.5 million fine for a violation that results in death or permanent injury.

Davis rejected a bill (AB 1363) by Assemblywoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) aimed at helping school health clinics qualify for public funds from programs such as the Healthy Families project.

The governor said that although he supports such clinics, he believes that they already have the legal authority to seek reimbursement. However, the governor did ask state health officials to study the issue and report back to him.

Outside the Capitol, parents and educators rallied in a last-ditch show of support for a bill that would require administrators to notify families before spraying pesticides at public schools.

The bill (AB 1207) by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco), was endorsed by more than 50 organizations--ranging from the California Medical Assn. to the California State PTA. But advocates say pressure from one opponent, a group representing manufacturers and retailers of agricultural chemicals, may be influencing Davis.

“I’m told the governor may veto this bill, and I find that very distressing,” said Robert Cheasty, a Bay Area attorney whose son became ill after running next to a high school field that had just been sprayed with herbicides. “For a governor who pledged to help children thrive in school, this is a no-brainer.”

Most schools routinely use chemicals to combat cockroaches, ants and weeds. But two districts--Los Angeles and San Francisco--this year decided to phase out pesticide use.

The bill initially required a ban on pesticides at schools but was scaled back due to opposition. It now requires parental notification and the posting of signs before spraying; training for school personnel in alternative methods of pest control, and a state study of portable classrooms, which are known to emit air contaminants that make some children sick.

Despite its weaker form, the bill continued to draw fire from the Western Crop Protection Assn., a trade group representing companies that make and sell agricultural chemicals. In a letter to Davis, the association’s president, Steve Forsberg, attacked the provision requiring notification 72 hours before spraying, saying that it is intended to “raise the anxieties of both parents and children.”

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Times staff writers Amy Pyle and Jenifer Warren contributed to this story.