Victory! A New School Bus Car Seat!

I'm not sure how common it is for a child to need a car seat on a school bus, but since my son is only 26 pounds and three feet tall, he does. I don't know what policies are like for all bus companies, but my son's bus company is a private company where they have old car seats that nobody is trained to install or check, and nobody is trained to properly harness the children in the seat. This is a nightmare when you're putting your three year old on a bus with a stranger as a driver. The drivers change, and the bus attendants change, and you can't be sure that your kid will be safely secured if anything happens. There are school bus accidents on the news all the time, and if you read my blog, you know there's a lot of ice up here where we live.

Before school even started in September, I called the bus company to make sure they had car seats, and that there would be a car seat for my son on the school bus. The first day of school, my husband and I had to adjust it because it was not installed correctly, and the straps were twisted beyond repair. We straightened them best we could, but it was impossible to straighten them completely.

My brother, who is an engineer, explained to me the danger of having twisted straps when I strapped his kids into their car seats. He explained that all the force would go to where the twist was, and this could cause serious injury. So, every morning, I would put my son into his seat myself, and try to untwist the straps as well as I could. However, I was not there when he got out of school and was put on the bus there.

As I mentioned, the attendants are not trained how to fasten the children into the car seats properly, and when he came home, the straps would be twisted and loose. I started having the various attendants fasten my son into his seat while I watched, and corrected anything they were doing that was not correct. I had to do this all the time because there were always different people on the bus. I called the bus company and requested that they take the seat apart to straighten out the straps. That didn't happen.

One day when my son came home on the bus, I was horrified to see that one of the shoulder harnesses was not fastened. I called the county on this one and complained that nobody is trained on how to use the seats, and because they do not fasten my son into the seat correctly, he could be killed. I printed out instructions for the bus driver on how to correctly fasten children into the seats.

Then one day the bus needed to be inspected, so the driver used another bus to take my son home. This bus had no car seats, so my son was not in a car seat for the ride home at all. I was furious. I said that when I changed cars, or someone else took my son somewhere, I moved the car seat. I called the county to complain again. The bus driver didn't like me too much. Nothing happened, as far as I know. Somehow, the straps became even more twisted, and I demanded that they get a new car seat.

I was confounded that no other parent complained about the seats, or so they said. I kept calling the county until they were sick of hearing from me. Finally, after the holidays, my son had a brand new Btitax car seat, and I was very happy. Since I've told everyone how to use it, my son hasn't come home unfastened since. The thing that bothers me is that there are other children in car seats on the bus, and none of their parents ever have any issues.

I think that there should be a law that car seats need to be inspected periodically and that school bus personnel should be trained on how to use them. I should write to my congress people...although with the new president and the economy, I don't know if they'd care...maybe I should write to Oprah.

At least my son is safe in a new seat. Since having him, I've learned to be an advocate. It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and I've learned to squeak good and loud.