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Red tape blocks move for bus belts

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PARENTS will have to wait years for seatbelts to be made compulsory on thousands of school minibuses.

Laws are not even on the drawing board, despite concerns about the dangers as children commute to and from school.

The news has alarmed safety groups which fear youngsters could be hurled from their seats in an accident.

But a Transport Branch spokesman said bus belts would not be on the agenda until the Legislative Council debates laws on rear seatbelts in private cars.

'It will take years to carry out feasibility studies, draft the bill and get it passed in the executive and legislative councils,' she said.

Legislation gazetted recently, making an emergency-exit warning system compulsory, will take effect only after a one-year grace period. It came after a four-year-old fell from an emergency door.

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