The House passed Rep. Robby Carter’s bill 55-44 Tuesday to require any school bus entering the school system in 2023 or after to have seat belts for passengers.
The Amite representative said he brought the bill because he knows that the state will not be able to appropriate the funds to require seat belts for passengers in all school buses retroactively.
Carter brought a successful bill in 2004 to require seat belts in school buses, but he did not find a way to fund that bill. Now, 17 years later, he hopes to pass legislation that will actually make the change he meant to make earlier in his career.
The current bill is a compromise by which no buses must be retroactively fitted for seat belts, and seat belts will be phased in as new buses enter the school system beginning January 1, 2023. Carter made the year 2023 to ensure that the bill truly is not retroactive and does not affect any school buses that have already been placed under contract to be delivered. This gives the school systems about a year and a half to fall in line with this potential new requirement.
