HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — School bus crashes are a parent's and school’s worst nightmare. Just last month a Hernando County school bus with 18 kids on board landed on its side after being t-boned by a semi.
"When it landed I went from the wall where it got hit, straight down to the other wall," said Marin Aske, who was riding the bus.
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“We have tiptoed around it for a long time and it's time to take a hard stance on this," said Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB chairman.
The NTSB wants new buses to have three-point seatbelts, automatic breaking, and electronic stability control.
Lap belts are required by law on new buses here in Florida, but students are not required by law to actually wear them.
"I wouldn’t mind wearing these but as high schoolers and people in general, I don’t think people would wear them anyway," said Hernando High School 9th grader, Justin Revell.
No seat belts may be the reason no kids were killed in a crash in Hillsborough County when abus crashed in to pond a few years ago.
Some parents say they'd rather not chance the dangers on a school bus.
"We would rather go out of our way everyday and pickup our children and drop them off ourselves rather than entrusting them to the busing system," said parent Matthew Everhard.
Hernando County school district says drivers ask students to buckle up when they are on buses with lap belts. The district says they will also be looking into three-point seatbelts in the future.
