On a side note, Anyone else surprised that installing seat belts would cost an additional 8000 - 12000 _per_ bus. That just sounds a lot of BS. $170 million per state. LOL.
Yes. It is expensive even for a single installation.. Now, if the cost were $50 to install a seatbelt, then the magnitude of the issue of "costs of installing seat belts" wouldnt be so big and instead people would be judging the "need for seat belts" based on merits. Does it really improve the net safety for children.
No, I dont think each seat belt would need to cost 150-250 bucks especially when these are installed in bulk contracts.
Keep in mind that these seat belts would be retrofitted to existing models, models which may not be designed to hold seat belts since, as discussed in the article, almost no states require seat belts on school buses over a certain weight. Whatever the case, it wouldn't be surprising if installing a seat belt were 150-250 bucks as there are probably a metric fuckton of regulations on what such a seat belt needs to be.
This is pure speculation of course and, as you've said, only distracts from the real point. Whatever the cost, adding seat belts would probably only make things worse.