Laws May Have to Change to Promote School Bus Safety

"In the end it was just an accident," Smith said.  "You know he just simply didn't see the vehicle coming."

It is a call no administrator wants to get, fortunately for Assistant Superintendent for Slaton Independent School District Chris Smith, it has a happy ending.

"The kids are doing very well," Smith said. "They were all seen at UMC and we stayed there with them last night until they all went home. They were all released and they are doing fine."

13 Slaton ISD students were on that bus Tuesday afternoon when it collided into a pick up truck on Highway 84.  

"He was attempting to turn onto US Highway 84 and he went through his looks and he just simply didn't see the vehicle," Smith said. "He pulled out and that is when the vehicle struck the front of the bus."  

The driver was hired directly by the school district and Smith said he has a perfect driving record.

Now attention has turned to safety of school buses.

"Generally speaking a school bus is probably the safest vehicle on the road," Smith said. "And we feel good about that."

Texas state law does not require school buses to have seatbelts but if a school bus is equipped the law says students have to wear them.

"If we have the opportunity to make an environment safer for students, then that is something that we are going to look into and check out for the future," Smith said.

Smith said the district would like to have seat belts in all of their buses but repairing and buying school buses is not cheap.

In October Slaton ISD purchased two new school buses -each costing $96,000.

"School funding is an issue for all school districts," Smith said. "School buses are very expensive and they are not easily replaced."

Smith said yesterday's bad weather could have contributed to yesterday's accident.