School bus seat belt discrepancy addressed

How much do seat belts in buses cost?

If you read the Press on Dec. 11, you got two distinctly different answers.

A Press news story quoted Coeur d’Alene School District officials as saying a new bus with seat belts would cost about $10,000 more than a new one without seat belts. A retrofitted bus could cost about $20,000 to put seat belts in, the story said.

However, a pros and cons list from localschooldirectory.com, which was published with The Press story, said “installation of seat belts in school buses would cost less than $2 per child.”

Nobody from the website responded to multiple Press requests for comment and clarification. However, Coeur d’Alene district officials maintain belts can cost anywhere from about $150 to more than $800 per seat, depending on the type of belt and whether the bus is new or being retrofitted.