Bumpy ride

I rode a public school bus recently on a third-grade field trip to the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix from Tempe and back, clinging on for dear life the entire time.

A speed bump that you barely notice in a car tosses the kids in the back seats six inches into the air. A right turn almost put me in the lap of the teacher across the aisle.

So while I applaud new federal rules that require higher seat backs and new seat belt standards for the nation's 474,000 school buses, I don't think they're enough.

All new school buses must have 24-inch seat backs, up from the current 20 inches, which should better protect child passengers by keeping them from being thrown over seats in the event of a crash. The change also requires all new small buses, which are more prone to roll over than full-size buses, to be equipped with three-point seat belts.

I want seat belts on all school buses.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, which issued the new requirements, acknowledged in a report that lap-and-shoulder belts could enhance the safety of large school buses, too, but added, “Realistically…we recognize that funds provided for pupil transportation are limited." (The new regulations alone are expected to cost more than $7 million annually nationwide.)

But as I bounced along in that school bus, I watched the little kids around me hang on to the seat back in front of them to stay in their seats, hooting like they were on some roller coaster ride. I wouldn’t let them do the same thing in my car – in fact, the law doesn’t allow it.

Karina Bland is raising her 9-year-old son in Tempe with a lot of love, humor and support from her friends and family. A longtime journalist covering child welfare and education issues for The Arizona Republic, she blogs about raising good kids.