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School safety measures advance
By Lee Springfield bureau
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SPRINGFIELD — Two measures affecting safety of schoolchildren heading to and from school have advanced in the General Assembly.

In two bills sent to the House for a vote:

-- School speed zones would be set uniformly at nine hours a day, year-round, throughout Illinois.

-- All future school buses purchased in Illinois would be equipped with seatbelts.

State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, is sponsoring the school zone measure, which he says will eliminate much of the danger posed by school speed zones with differing times.

“As far as speeding in a school zone it defines a school day as any weekday between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.,” Rose said, describing the measure. “The school zone is not affected at any other time.”

The measure would include school zones at year-round schools.

Joe Hill, an engineer with the Department of Transportation, said existing school zone speed regulations are working and don’t need to be changed.

“The 20-miles-per-hour speed limit for school zones has been in place for many years, and we believe that the current law has been working fine the way it is,” he said. “We have received no complaints from police departments, Illinois State Police or local school districts concerning this.”

Hill added that the 20 mph speed limit in place for nine hours a day would not have the intended effect.

“Putting up a 20 mph speed limit sign for a school zone nine hours a day in a 45 mph speed limit we believe would lead to a lot of violations of that speed zone,” he said.

“We believe it would erode the credibility of the school speed zone.”

Lawmakers did not agree with Hill and sent the bill to the full House on Tuesday for a vote.

The legislation is House Bill 323.

On the topic of seatbelts, state Rep. Elizabeth Coulson, who proposed the measure, said she has seen costs estimate for the seatbelts of $1,000 to $4,000 for each new bus. The law would not require that the existing buses be retrofitted with seatbelts.

Coulson, R-Glenview, said that, though the specifics have not been worked out, she would like to see the seatbelts include shoulder restraints.

“To me a seatbelt without a shoulder harness isn’t a seatbelt,” she said.

Lawmakers voiced some concern about how the proposal would work with existing laws concerning child safety seats.

“Right now, school buses don’t have seatbelts at all,” Coulson said. “This is safer than not having some kind of a (child safety) seat.”

The measure was OK’d by the House Transportation Committee Tuesday.

The legislation is House Bill 381.

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Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

middle of the road dude wrote on Mar 22, 2007 8:44 AM:

" it needs to be the way it is. better inforcment would help "
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