Our transportation reporter, Martin Cassidy, today reported that the Transportation Committee of the General Assembly has approved a controversial bill requiring mandatory lap and shoulder seat belts on all newly purchased school buses.
During a morning press conference today I asked Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell where she is on the proposal.
On the one hand cities and towns have been complaining the legislation is another unfunded mandate from the state and Rell has been sympathetic to such complaints in the past.
On the other hand the Bond Commission today approved money to replace the state’s aged fleet of vocational technical high school buses. And when Rell announced that investment a few weeks ago, she also ordered the new vo-tech vehicles have seat belts, setting up a future scenario where one group of public school kids has to buckle up and another does not.
Rell told me she wants to review the Transportation Committee legislation but is supportive of requiring belts on new buses.
“I have trouble with going back and doing a retrofit” and installing safety belts on older buses due to the expense, she said.
