Department for Transport consultation on:
Directive 2003/10/EC – Use of seat belts and child restraints by child passengers on buses and coaches
Response from Brake, the road safety charity, November 2007
Brake is the national road safety charity, dedicated to stopping deaths and injuries on roads and caring for people bereaved and affected by road crashes. Brake carries out research into road users’ attitudes on aspects of road safety, including attitudes towards child road safety and seat-belt wearing. It also works with people bereaved and seriously injured in road crashes to campaign for changes in the law, which will benefit road safety and provide much needed support for road crash victims.
General comments
Wearing a seatbelt is a major contributor to surviving a crash– using a seat belt can improve your chance of surviving a potentially fatal crash by between 40 - 60 per cent[1] andit is estimated that universal seat belt use could prevent 6,000 deaths and 380,000 injuries every year in the EU[2].
We know that seat belt legislation saves lives - increased seat belt wearing as the result of legislation and enforcement has reduced fatalities by up to 20% in the UK; 20% in Australia; and 25-30% in Germany over the past 25 years.For this reason is it absolutely vital that we make seat-belt wearing compulsory for children, as well as adults, in coaches and buses. Practical challenges involved in bringing in this legislation are by no means insurmountable and should not prevent life-saving legislation from being implemented.
Although the legislation being discussed in this consultation relates to children aged three and over, it is vital that children aged under three are also protected by seat belt legislation while travelling on coaches and buses. We recognise that varying styles of seat belts on coaches, and varying seat sizes and shapes mean that child restraints cannot currently be used in every coach and bus with seatbelts fitted, and so legislation must reflect this. However, we believe that in the long term, the Government’s aim should be to protect all coach and bus passengers with appropriate restraints. The EU should immediately implement legislation requiring all new coaches and buses to have three-point seat belts fitted, and requiring coaches to be designed to allow the use of child-restraints where necessary. It should also implement legislation requiring child seats to be used where possible by passengers aged under three, so that this age group are not exempt from being protected. More research could be conducted into all generation three-point belts, to see if fitment of these belts could provide an equally safe alternative to requiring children to use child restraints in coaches. The Government has a responsibility to make surethat all children are protected in all vehicles, and should commit to taking further action following the legislation discussed in this consultation to ensure that this occurs.
Comments on specific questions
Question 8: Do you have any views about the option of ‘doing nothing’?
In Brake’s viewit would be inappropriate and immoral to do nothing. The UK has an obligation to implement the Directive, and doing so would have significant safety benefits for children, as described above.
Question 9: Do you have any views about the option of placing responsibility for wearing a seat belt on the passenger on a bus or coach irrespective of age?
Brake does not think it is appropriate for passengers of all ages to be held responsible for wearing a seat belt. Some children are not even capable of fastening a seat belt, let alone capable of understanding they are responsible for wearing a seat belt on every journey. Children under 10 years of age cannot be found guilty of a crime[3] because they are not deemed responsible for their actions, so it would be inconsistent to make children under this age legally responsible for wearing a seat belt.
Question 10: Do you have any views about adjusting the present age limit of 14 for bus and coach passengers, for example moving it to the age of 11?
Since Brake thinks it is essential that children are required by law to wear seatbelts in coaches and buses, and there are difficulties with requiring other people to bear responsibility for ensuring this, is would be beneficial to reduce the age at which children themselves are responsible for wearing a seatbelt. If properly educated, children aged 11 or older are likely to be capable of comprehending the requirement to wear a seatbelt, and ensuring they do so. Moving the age limit to 11 years coincides with secondary school starting age, which is a common age for children to begin travelling further to school and therefore using buses to travel to and from school.
Question 11: Do you have any views about the option of placing responsibility on the driver of a bus or coach for ensuring that seat belts are worn by child passengers aged between 3 and 14 years?
It seems unrealistic to expect a bus or coach driver to be aware of whether all passengers are wearing a seat belt, let alone to be able to ensure all passengers are wearing a seat belt, whileconcentrating fully on the task of driving safely. While this rule is reasonable in taxis and even minibuses, it is impractical for larger vehicles where the driver cannot see if a passenger is wearing a seat belt without getting up from his seat.
However, a legal responsibility should be placed on the driver to make passengers aware of the requirement to wear a seatbelt. This could be achieved through an obligation to make an announcement and conduct a walk-round check prior to every trip.
Question 12: Do you have any views about the option of placing responsibility on the operator of a bus or coach for ensuring that seat belts are worn by child passengers aged between 3 and 14 years?
Thereshould be a level of responsibility placed on the operator to ensure signs are placed in coaches and buses to indicate passengers’ legal requirement to wear a seat belt and drivers make announcements to passengers to wear seatbelts.
Question 13: Do you have any views about the option of placing responsibility on any accompanying adult for ensuring that seat belts are wornby child passengers aged between 3 and 14 years on buses and coaches?
If there is an accompanying adult, then it makes sense for that adult to bear responsibility for ensuring the child they are accompanying wears a seat belt.While responsibility for making announcements should fall on the operator and driver, the responsibility for actually ensuring a child is wearing a seat belt cannot fall upon either of these. This leaves only the child themselves, or the adult accompanying them. We have suggested that children aged 11 or older are personally responsible for wearing a seatbelt. In the case of children under 11, an adult accompanying them should bear this responsibility, just as they will presumably bear responsibility for the child’s safety in other respects.Legislation prohibiting children under 11 from travelling in buses and coaches without an accompanying adult should also be considered, as this is the only way of ensuring someone is responsible for the child’s safety while travelling. This could include supervisors or teachers on school buses.
For more information, contact Rachel Burr, campaigns officer, on 01494 530085 or email .
[1]FIA Foundation,
[2]ICF Consulting 2003 Cost-Benefit Analysis of Road Safety Improvements. Final Report London, U.K.
[3] Department for Constitutional Affairs,