News that seatbelts have been installed in 92 school buses, including those operating in Singleton, will be welcomed by those who have long campaigned for their installation.
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The campaign for school bus seatbelts in our region attracted greater attention, following the tragic Hunter Valley bus crash in June last year, when 10 people travelling back to Singleton from the vineyards died near the roundabout on Wine Country Drive at Greta.
Those who survived the crash joined with the bus crash victim's families to campaign at both a state and federal level to make seat belts mandatory in all buses.
Families from Branxton, whose children travel daily to Maitland for high school, were also pushing the government to act and install seatbelts on those buses.
Now school children in parts of the Hunter region will benefit from safer journeys following completion of a $10 million program to provide 92 additional seat belted school buses.
Funding for seatbelts was made possible after the Rural and Regional Seatbelt Program was extended to include school buses in selected outer metropolitan areas.
This means that as well as the 2,583 dedicated school buses in rural and regional NSW that have received seatbelts in recent years, an additional buses in Cessnock, Singleton, Maitland and Port Stephens now have seatbelts as well.
A total of 92 school buses in the Hunter have been retrofitted with seatbelts, while 10 are brand new seatbelted vehicles.
Transport for NSW carried out careful analysis to determine which Hunter school buses received seatbelts, determining they be installed on vehicles which regularly travel on roads with a higher crash risk rating with speed limits of 80 km/h or more.
The buses operate on dedicated school routes serviced by Transport's contracted operators Rover Motors, CDC NSW and Port Stephens Coaches.
The program was the result of a close partnership between Transport for NSW, the bus operators and seat belt retrofitters, Sydney-based Baxter Omnibus Sales & Service and Royans Brisbane.
On the buses that were retrofitted, a total of 6,671 seatbelts were installed on 4,624 seats, including one, two and three-person seats.
Disruption to normal school services was minimised during the 15-month retrofit program with replacement buses being used throughout.
Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison said "Children are among some of our most vulnerable road users and we are committed to ensuring they can travel safely to and from school every day."
"Wearing a seatbelt doubles the chance of surviving a crash and reduces the risk of injury and I know having seatbelts on more buses in the Hunter will give a level of assurance to families that their children are going to and from school better protected.
"Safety of bus services remains a top priority for the NSW Government and is a key focus of the Bus Industry Taskforce, with a multi-year campaign to promote seatbelt use on buses already underway and work continuing on other ways to improve safety for standing passengers."