That’s what I always assumed was the reason for designing them to be safe without belts.
There were belts on couple of the front seats when I was a kid (mid 80s).
Ironically that state had only just started making seatbelts mandatory for minors (I think under 16 or maybe just under 12). There were kids riding around in the back of pickup trucks on main roads when we first moved there.
The used school bus I bought spent its working life in Buffalo where state law requires all buses to have seat belts. Most of them had been stuffed down behind the backrests and none of them showed even the slightest bit of wear despite 15 years in service.
That’s what I always assumed was the reason for designing them to be safe without belts.
There were belts on couple of the front seats when I was a kid (mid 80s).
Ironically that state had only just started making seatbelts mandatory for minors (I think under 16 or maybe just under 12). There were kids riding around in the back of pickup trucks on main roads when we first moved there.
The used school bus I bought spent its working life in Buffalo where state law requires all buses to have seat belts. Most of them had been stuffed down behind the backrests and none of them showed even the slightest bit of wear despite 15 years in service.