Vote expected on seat belts on buses
By RYAN MYERS
Beaumont Enterprise
By this afternoon, family members of students in the West Brook High School bus crash that killed two young women should know how a measure to require school bus seat belts fared in the Texas House of Representatives.
“I think we’ve got a good chance, said Rep. Mike Hamilton, R-Mauriceville.
“A lot of school bus seat belt bills have been filed in the past and this one will be the first one to see a floor vote,” he said by phone Saturday.
The legislation lawmakers will vote on Monday - combining bills by Rep. Allan Ritter, D-Nederland, Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont and Hamilton - would give school districts more time to comply with the new law and gives the state until 2010 to finance the measure.
Hamilton said the revisions in the latest version, that cleared the Calendars committee on Thursday, give the bill a greater chance of passing.
School districts would be required to include seat belts in all buses purchased after Sept. 1, 2010, and charter buses, like the one in the West Brook crash, would be required to have belts in 2014.
The West Brook high School girl’s soccer team was involved in a bus wreck March 29, 2006 east of Devers that killed Ashley Brown and Alicia Bonura. The 23 team members and two coaches were en route to a play-off game in Houston.
Beaumont Independent School District began ordering buses equipped with three-point belts after the accident and has begun introducing the buses into its fleet.
One of the news buses will be in Austin today for legislators to see the belts.
Parents of those killed and injured in the West Brook soccer team bus crash have testified in House committee hearings and will be in Austin today for the vote.