Taking a charter bus w/baby?

[LittleGriff]

Hi,

I am starting graduate school in September and am required to attend a 3 day retreat to kick things off. My son will be 10 weeks old by then and luckily I have gotten them to let me bring him (and my mom for child care!) along too. The trick is that I am required to take a charter bus provided by the school. Is there any way to safely secure his car seat on the bus? My mom and he could drive separately but it would really be nicer for the 3 of us if we could all just take the bus together. (Chicago to Lake Geneva, WI, 1 hr 45 min according to Google) We have a Graco infant seat, presumably a SnugRide (got it from a friend so don't quite remember the exact model).

Any thoughts?

Thanks so much,
Jennifer

[nausicaamom]

Check with the charter company first - they may not have the liability insurance for a child young/small enough to require a car seat to ride the bus. This happened recently to a friend of mine - the shop sponsoring the trip had no problem with her daughter riding on her lap, but the charter company said no.

[LucyJaynesmom]

Hi, I have to respond to this.

We just got back from a Disney cruise, and can you believe they wanted me to hold my 10 month old on my lap for the 45 - 50 minute bus ride from the port to the airport!!!! : : My husband and I were furious. I mean, Disney of all companies, to try to make us do something that I felt SO unsafe doing. We ending up paying over $300 in round trip taxi fare from Orlando to Port Canaveral and back. I couldn't believe it! There were ppl just getting on the bus with babe in arms like lemmings, looking at us like we were crazy. I need to write letters but just haven't had a moment yet.

[ccohenou]

The safety profile of buses is much different from that of cars.
I recently specifically chose to take a bus on a longish trip rather than drive, so that I could hold my baby rather than have her stuck in a carseat the whole time. And took the city bus instead of cabs while we were there.

[thepeach80]

Charter buses have no seatbelts of any kind. The chance that you'll get into a crash in that bus, let alone a deadly one are VERY low. If you choose to take baby on the bus, I probably would't blink an eye. For a trip that long though, I would probably have mom take him in the car. We are going to Disney next month and I was so worried about taking the Disney bus for the longest time, but now we're flying into Jacksonville so we have to rent a car anyways. Whew.

[LucyJaynesmom]

Originally Posted by ccohenou

The safety profile of buses is much different from that of cars.

Could you direct me to this information? I would really like to read about it. Thanks!!

[ccohenou]

This is specifically about school buses, but applies to any large bus:
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/saf...us/safebus.htm

[thepeach80]

The safety features on buses only work for a person who is at least 4 and 40#, it won't work for a baby. The safest thing about buses is their size.

[Momily]

Originally Posted by ccohenou

This is specifically about school buses, but applies to any large bus:
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/saf...us/safebus.htm

I'm not sure that's true. School buses are made very differently from "regular" buses -- the seat backs are much higher, and they're padded to provide "containment" in case of an accident. The add extra weight to the bottom of the bus to prevent roll-overs, and they paint them yellow and add lights to make them more visible. The result is that a child on a school bus, not in a seatbelt is 7 times as safe as a child in a seatbelt in a car.

I don't know what the statistics are for regular buses, but I do know that they aren't the same as school buses.

Having said that, I rode city buses with my son as an infant all the time, and felt quite safe doing so.

[intorainbowz]

We rode the shuttle busses with DD between our hotel and Disneyland. I put it in the same category as public buses... meaning no car seat required or even able to be used. I guess I don't see the big deal about children on buses as it is a fact of life. There is no way to restrain a child on a bus.