Philippa Cameron presented her petition to Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean in Wellington last week.
Southern District Health Board trauma medical director Mike Hunter said there was no doubt that compulsory wearing of seatbelts in cars had saved many lives since its introduction, and it was an extraordinary anomaly that such restraints were not required on buses.
"This is particularly compelling in rural areas where buses travelling at open road speed risk making children into fatal projectiles should any collision, rollover or departure from the road occur," Mr Hunter said.
"The Glenorchy road crash in January 2020, in which a young girl lost both her hands, is a clear example of a devastating outcomes which was highly likely to have been much less severe if all of the passengers were restrained by seatbelts," Mr Hunter said.
Mrs Cameron makes a 64km round-trip car journey twice a day to take her 5-year-old daughter Flora to school in Kurow, due to her concerns about the safety of children in a bus without seatbelts.
She gathered about 6500 signatures on her petition, which will now be considered by Parliament’s petitions select committee.
"The laws of physics don’t change just because you’re in a large vehicle.
"Deceleration will crush or rip apart your vital organs just as effectively, whether you are in a bus or a car."
Installing seatbelts in buses would come at a price, but the cost of a young person losing their life or suffering serious injury was unacceptable, he said.
Mr Hunter also feared the different standards between vehicle types compromised safety campaigns.
"In insisting on seatbelts in cars and not in buses, we are giving a highly irrational and conflicting message, to children in particular," he said.
"Why should they take our message to Buckle up seriously if sometimes they don’t have to?
"Our politicians need to legislate now to make seatbelts compulsory on all buses, but particularly on school buses, starting with those most at risk, in rural areas."
