The outside, front end of a Horry County school bus involved in a head on collision Friday morning is smashed in like an accordion. It's hard to believe seven students and their bus driver survived with only a few injuries. But a look on the inside tells a different story.
Spokesperson Todd Cartner with Horry County Fire Rescue said, "The interior of the bus is very well intact considering the impact it took from the front. It's very well intact. None of the seats the children were in were damaged at all.”
Jim Wright, Horry County School Transportation director said buses built more recently have many new safety features to protect their passengers.
"There's like a double bumper inside of the school bus so it absorbs a lot of the impact. There's rails that go all the way across the frame of the vehicle. Right there at floor level it's really thick. So that absorbs most of the impact,” Wright told News13.
School transportation officials say under a certain amount of impact, the school bus seats will collapse and the cushioning inside will also protect students.
"They have like a four inch cushion for the seat. It pads them. It's kind of like an airbag already built in for each seat that they have,” Wright said.
With the school bus seats being only three inches apart from the one in front, Wright says there isn't a need for seat belts.
"Having them strapped into seat belts, it would have taken longer to evacuate a bus,” Wright said.
Wright said they'll continue to alter the design of buses so future accidents will also have favorable results for the passengers inside the bus.
Wright said inspections are done regularly on buses.
He said buses are on a 15 year replacement cycle. Wright said that means their oldest buses are from the late 80's.
Wright said today’s bus is a 1994 model, and believes it will be considered “totaled”. He's said rarely do they ever use parts again from a bus that's totaled.
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