The crash of an MCI coach on a California freeway left 13 dead and 31 injured.

“A California tour bus slammed into the rear of a tractor-trailer, killing thirteen people and injuring thirty-one others”, a state police official said on Oct 24th. It’s a tragic situation that might have prevented; the tour bus did not have seat belts. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, this bus was inspected in April this year that with no mechanical problems reported. Although the National Transportation Safety Board investigators are still trying to determine a cause of the crash, this accident emphasizes that regulators need to concentrate even more on seat belts for public transportation.

Several studies – and our engineering team at GWR – have found that a key factor of injuries in many bus crashes is that many buses didn’t update their safety systems, like seat belts. Many old buses still don’t have seat belts installed, or use old seat belts. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declared that if passengers and drivers wear 3-point seat belts, it could reduce 44 percent of deaths by crash accidents. GWR designs and manufactures leading 3-point seat belt systems used to improve both passenger and driver safety. We are committed to reducing the chance of death in a bus accident. We firmly recommend that bus and motor coach owners retrofit their existing buses with 3-point seat belts to increase their customer’s safety.