Students using wheelchairs ride on lift buses that are specially equipped to provide the safest ride possible. There are many different power (electric) wheelchairs on the market today that provide for the mobility needs of students on lift school buses. Their safe bus ride requires that each student have his or her wheelchair properly secured to the floor with securement belting that is not worn, frayed or made by different manufacturers. Each belt must be properly seated in the floor tracking appropriate for that type of belt. Each securement belt must be attached to a WC-19 Standard belt loop which is located on the frame of the wheelchair to avoid contact with the wheels or any part of the frame that will come off (such as the footplates). The four-way securement of the wheelchair does not mean that the student is safe to ride on the lift bus without have occupant restraints provided as well for the student's safe ride. Occupant restraint is a three-point body securement for the child in the wheelchair. One belt is a shoulder harness that is secured to tracking anchorage mounted above the window sill overhead from the student and behind his or her seated position. This shoulder harness connects to a two-point lap belt secured either to the bus floor or to the two rear wheelchair securement belts. Together the wheelchair securement and the occupant restraint provide seven-points of safety for the child and the mobility aid.

Yet the safety of the child who is firmly secured using these seven points is not complete until the wheelchair tray is removed during the bus ride. Many school districts with very caring and skillful driver teams (bus driver and student attendant) ignore the importance of removing the tray before the bus ride begins and returning it to the wheelchair once the student has arrived and has exited the bus by the lift platform. These Driver Teams keep the trays in place without thinking that severe abdominal injuries are possible, if not certain, during a collision when the student using a wheelchair has a tray mounted that is not soft, pliant and well-padded. Occupational Therapists in the school district can easily fit a foam-filled soft tray to be used only on the bus for each wheelchair user's safety. Other Driver Teams have properly secured their wheelchair users and provided a foam-padded tray during the ride and forget about the danger of not securing the hard wheelchair tray so that it does not become a lethal flying object during a school bus collision. With these precautions always in place on the lift bus when collisions do occur the injury of students using wheelchairs can be minimized. Without those precautions, their injuries may be fatal.

TOPIC FOUR BEST FIX: All lift buses must use a four-way wheelchair securement integrated with occupant restraint shoulder harness and lap belts to properly secure each student using a wheelchair. All wheelchair users should either vacate their wheelchair to transfer to a school bus seat where there they can be secured using a seat belt on a seat-belt ready bus bench seat. --OR—Each student remaining in his or her wheelchair and properly secured will have a foam-padded tray to replace the hard tray used off the lift bus. –AND—Each student's hard tray will be stored in a wall-mounted bag near the wheelchair securement area that prohibits any trays from being ejected from the bag and causing severe injuries to others during a bus frontal or rear collision, rollover or lateral collision.

Topic Four Quick Fix #1: Parents should inspect their child's wheelchair to know exactly where the original equipment manufacturer's (OEM) securement directions indicate each of four wheelchair securement belts must be attached to the wheelchair. Observe the same lift bus before unloading at the school loading zone to determine if the Driver Team did in fact use the appropriate securement locations and that belting for their child's wheelchair has not come loose during the bus ride.

Topic Four Quick Fix #2: Parents should observe regularly if the Driver Team is attaching the shoulder harness and lap belts to their child. Shoulder harnesses are adjustable with a take-up band to allow for best fit across the student's shoulders and not across the student's face or neck. Some Driver Teams ignore the use of the occupant restraint system thinking that the wheelchair lapbelt will keep the student in the wheelchair during a school bus collision. Those wheelchair lap belts are not for collisions or displacement during sudden bus braking or sharp turning. When lift buses are carefully driven and approach a speed bump, a dip in the road or possibly override a curb during a wide turn wheelchair and seated occupants to the rear of the bus can easily be spilled from their wheelchairs or seats to the floor with severe injuries even in a very mild to moderate bus maneuver.

Topic Four Quick Fix #3: Parents should assure that the lift bus has an onboard videotape system operating on all routes for their child and that Driver Team performance with wheelchair securement, proper fitting of students using occupant restraints, removal and proper storage of wheelchair trays is being done—always--and not occasionally or when the parents or a supervisor is on board.