Inside: Transportation: Texas Seat Belts

Texas has enacted a law that eventually will require school buses in the state to have lap-shoulder safety belts in every seat.

The bill signed by Gov. Rick Perry calls for all school buses bought by a school district after Sept. 1, 2010, to have the so-called three-point belts. Charter buses used by school districts to transport students must have seat belts by Sept. 1, 2011.

For buses that already have seat belts, students and drivers are required to wear them now.

“Putting seat belts on school buses will give parents greater assurance that their precious children will be safer when they are out of their sight and not under their control,” says Perry.

The law calls on the state board of education to create a training program to teach proper use of the safety belts.

A 2006 bus crash that killed two students from a Beaumont, Texas, high school was the impetus for the law.