subject: Improved Bus Seats [print this page] Improved Bus Seats Safety Restraint is disclosed. The preferred safety restraint comprises a padded U-shaped bar that has indexed stops at stowed, in-use and lower locked positions. The bar locks and restrains the passenger when the vehicle experiences a side or front collision, or if the vehicle rolls over. The bar preferably has a single, fixed pivot point. The bar further comprises a padded thigh pad that is height-adjustable to provide greater comfort to a wide variety of body shapes and sizes. Still further, the restraint bar system is installable and easily aligned on both new and existing bus seats and other mass transportation vehicles.
Mass transportation vehicles such as bus seats have been widely used in virtually every city and town in the developed world for decades. Generally speaking, these vehicles typically include two or more columns of bench seats aligned one behind the other with a minimum necessary distance between a seat and the seat behind it. It is uncommon to find automobile-type lap or shoulder restraints for the passengers on public transportation vehicles, apparently because passengers repeatedly fail to engage the belts, either due to carelessness or due to perceived discomfort. In general, then, there is not currently a widely used restraint system to prevent passengers of mass transportation systems from being tossed from their bus seats in the event of a vehicle collision or rollover.
This problem is particular egregious in the case of school buses. Many children ride the bus seats to and from school five days a week in all weather, traffic and road conditions. The high frequency of ridership under a variety of conditions indicates that it is inevitable that more children passengers will experience a collision while riding a bus than virtually any other passenger group. This is exacerbated by the fact that children can tend to be particularly unruly while riding the bus to and from school; the children cannot be relied upon to engage the current safety restraints, even if they were provided. What is needed, therefore, is a safety restraint system for vehicles with bench bus seats that is easy to use and to be monitored.
