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Pittsfield Committee to Consider Seat Belts on School Buses
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
01:25AM / Tuesday, December 06, 2016
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The Public Safety Advisory Committee kicked around some research topics as it tries to find its bearings as a committee.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Last month's devastating school bus crash in Chattanooga, Tenn., has the Public Safety Advisory Committee mulling the idea of seat belts in city school buses.
 
Six elementary schoolchildren were killed and many others injured when the bus crashed into a tree. There is no law requiring school buses to have seat belts in Massachusetts but a few states do. The National Safety Council, an advocacy group, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are both calling for school buses to have seat belts
 
"The one thing that is going to be the detriment to this is that it is going to be too expensive. My argument is, what is the price on a child's life?" asked advisory Committee member Donald Bercury at Monday's meeting.
 
A bill requiring seat belts on buses had been proposed in Massachusetts. Last January, the bill was favorably voted out of the House of Representatives' Public Safety and Homeland Security and passed onto the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee. The School Transportation Association of Massachusetts submitted testimony claiming it would be costly for towns to retrofit current school buses and that seat belts would add some $11,000 to the cost of new buses.
 
On their own, some cities and towns have decided to purchase buses with seat belts.
 
Advisory committee member Ryan Cowdrey said Pittsfield recently bought a brand-new bus fleet, so a new purchase isn't likely anytime soon. But he wondered if there was a way to add seat belts to the existing buses. Fellow committee member Charles Smith said he wouldn't think simply adding lap belts would be too costly. He says right now  unrestrained children could get tossed from their seats with just a sharp corner or speed bump.
 
The School Department may already be ahead of the issue and Smith suggested meeting with the administration to discuss the possibility and the challenges of doing so.
 
"According to our ordinance, every department head is supposed to make themselves, or a representative, available to us," Smith said.
 
Cowdrey added that it might be helpful to meet with a private busing companies, like DuFour, as well to understand the impacts of such a rule.
 
Meanwhile member Patrick Muraca added that the city's insurance could also play a role in moving it forward because liability insurance could be decreased.
 
That was not the only school transportation issue to come up Monday when the group started brainstorming topics — members also discussed policies around children walking to school.
 
"It just irks me that in the middle of winter, it is zero [degrees] out, and I see a first- or second-grader walking to school and a high school kid is getting a ride," Smith said.
 
With newly appointed members, the Public Safety Advisory Committee used Monday to identify areas to discuss.
 
Muraca envisions the group taking a role in addressing the heroin issue.
 
"It is massive, massive, massive. We see it right here in our area," he said.
 
The entire country has been dealing with an epidemic of substance abuse, particularly heroin and prescription pills. Statistically in 2013 and 2014, Muraca said, heroin deaths were up 10 percent in Connecticut, 27.3 percent in Maine, and 18.8 percent in Massachusetts. 
 
"It is just devastating to see a lot of these things," he said. "How could we impact changes in the different type of policies and how things are handled? It is one of these problems that are so rampant."
 
Muraca said he would like to meet with agencies dealing with the issue to understand the local impacts even more;  Narcan, methadone and suboxone clinics, and policing, were among the topics touched on Monday. 
 
He'd like to look into making recommendations on various policies such as how health and law enforcement officials respond to outbreaks of overdoses often caused by laced heroin. And if no policy changes arise, at least spread more awareness about it.
 
"I think the awareness is a big thing. I think there is not a lot of reporting on it on exactly what the issue is," Muraca said. "It is something we need to keep an eye on as a public safety commission."
 
Smith added, "We don't have an issue yet. We just want to inform ourselves."
 
Smith, former Housing Authority director, also suggested emergency preparedness. He said there was a small fire in one of the authority's housing units that led to two floors becoming uninhabitable. It was a cold day and there were dozens of people needing places to go. 
 
Smith said emergency responders already had plans in place and within a half hour, every displaced resident had shelter and food. He said the committee could also serve a role in helping owners of other large apartment buildings understand the resources and be better prepared for when something happens.
 
"You need a place to get outside of the building and to gather. But there are a lot of these things which are already being thought of," Smith said.
 
He hopes to engage with emergency preparedness officials and private housing buildings to share information.
 
The Public Safety Advisory Committee has had a rocky 2016. Initially formed as the Police Advisory Committee, its purview was expanded and it met multiple times this year as it tried to get its footing and understanding about what the new administration wanted out of the group. That was also coupled with a series of resignations and then the expiration of other terms. Last month, the group had just three members appointed with actual terms, while others were participating despite having expired terms or not yet appointed.
 
Two weeks ago, Mayor Linda Tyer put forth the reappointment of some members and the appointment of the newest member, Cowdrey. Bercury said the group still wants some more members and will be urging Tyer for appointments.
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