Which school buses in Central Texas are equipped with seatbelts?

How many CTX school buses have seatbelts?

Hays CISD is accelerating plans to outfit all its school buses with seatbelts after a deadly crash in March. 7 On Your Side reporter Carissa Lehmkuhl explains several Central Texas school districts are still working to phase out buses without seatbelts.

AUSTIN, Texas - Hays CISD has a new safety plan in place to make sure all of its school buses have seatbelts. This comes after a district bus with no seatbelts was hit by a concrete truck in March.

"We haven't gotten the investigation report yet from DPS, so we will wait on that to see if seatbelts would have made a difference, but we are planning on accelerating our timeline to make sure that all of our buses in the future will have seatbelts," said Hays CISD Superintendent Eric Wright, in an interview with FOX 7 right after the crash.

In 2017, state lawmakers passed a bill requiring all school buses to have three-point seatbelts. However, this rule does not apply to models pre-2017.

There is also another exception. A school board of trustees can determine it's not in the district’s budget to purchase a bus with seatbelts and give approval by holding a vote during a public meeting.

Hays CISD approves new bus safety plan

Hays CISD has put together a new safety plan on school buses without seatbelts after the deadly crash in Bastrop County last month.

7 On Your Side looked into some of the districts in FOX 7’s viewing area.

Here are the numbers (some buses were purchased without seatbelts and were later retrofitted with seatbelts):

Austin ISD Buses in fleet: 551 Equipped with seatbelts: 100%
Buses in fleet: 551
Equipped with seatbelts: 100%
Round Rock ISD Buses in fleet: 251 Equipped with seatbelts: 75% All used on daily routes have seatbelts, except for one that is used as a backup. 5 new buses are on order
Buses in fleet: 251
Equipped with seatbelts: 75%
All used on daily routes have seatbelts, except for one that is used as a backup.
5 new buses are on order
Eanes ISD Buses in fleet: 57 Equipped with seatbelts: 100%
Buses in fleet: 57
Equipped with seatbelts: 100%
Hutto ISD Buses in fleet: 90 Equipped with seatbelts: 50% Buses without seatbelts will be phased out by 2027.
Buses in fleet: 90
Equipped with seatbelts: 50%
Buses without seatbelts will be phased out by 2027.
Manor ISD Buses in fleet: 55 (daily routes) Equipped (fully) with seat belts: 55% (45% have "designated seatbelts")
Buses in fleet: 55 (daily routes)
Equipped (fully) with seat belts: 55%
(45% have "designated seatbelts")
Lake Travis ISD Buses in fleet: 110 Equipped with seatbelts: 100%
Buses in fleet: 110
Equipped with seatbelts: 100%
Hays CISD Buses in fleet: 109 (daily routes) 90% equipped with seatbelts
Buses in fleet: 109 (daily routes)
90% equipped with seatbelts

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However, at completion of the plan approved Monday night, Hays CISD will have 115 daily route buses and 80 support buses, all with seatbelts. Any buses without seatbelts will be decommissioned. As of Monday, 21 new buses with seatbelts had arrived and finishing touches were being made.

"We have some more buses that we ordered in August. They'll be coming in hopefully this summer," said Tim Savoy, HAYS CISD chief communications officer at Monday’s board meeting. "It takes about, believe it or not, a year to get a school bus."

Hays CISD is also considering leasing buses with seatbelts until all the new buses are delivered.

7 On Your Side Education Transportation Hays County Austin