"Keep our kids alive facing the rear" – DLP Senate team leader for Queensland, Tony Zegenhagen
Queensland’s DLP Senate team leader Tony Zegenhagen has called for rearward facing seats on school buses in Queensland.
On Tuesday this week (11 May 2010) two school buses crashed on Hawkesbury Road, Springwood, in the Lower Blue Mountains west of Sydney in New South Wales, with a total of sixty children aboard. There were no fatalities and no life-threatening injuries, but forty children with minor injuries were taken to Nepean, Blacktown and Westmead Hospitals by a fleet of ambulances.
“A significant percentage of Queensland’s school children travel daily by bus, and many of the journeys are for long distances on narrow rural roads,” said Tony Zegenhagen. “Queensland school buses have a fine safety record, but we should not be complacent about the need to maximise safety for our Queensland kids.”
“Queensland law requires the use in motor vehicles of rearward-facing capsules for babies and encourages the use of rearward-facing child restraints for children under the age of four,” said Mr Zegenhagen. “For older children there is a strong case for rearward-facing seats with high backs to support the head in the event of an impact. And a rearward facing seat greatly enhances the value of a seatbelt.”
Mr Zegenhagen quotes car manufacturer Volvo: “A child in a *rearward*-facing child seat is approximately 90% less likely to be injured in an accident, , , , Children should travel rearward facing for as long as possible.”
Mr Zegenhagen continued: “The DLP asks the Queensland Government to require new school buses to be fitted with rearward-facing seats and seatbelts from the beginning of 2011 onwards. We’d then like an assessment by January 2012 of the prospect of requiring all school buses to have rearward facing seats and seatbelts within five years.”
“There is a case for long distance coaches and other buses also to have rearward-facing seats,” said Mr Zegenhagen. “We should start by reducing the risks of travel for Queensland schoolchildren. Let’s keep our kids alive facing the rear.”
