Wheelchair securement and occupant restraint system (WTORS) practices in public transit buses

The purpose of this study was to characterize wheelchair tiedown and occupant restraint system (WTORS) usage in public transit buses based on observations of wheelchair and scooter (wheeled mobility device: WhMD) passenger trips. A retrospective review of on-board video surveillance recordings of WhMD trips on fixed-route, large accessible transit vehicles (LATVs) was performed. Two hundred ninety-five video recordings were collected for review and analysis during the period June 2007-February 2009. Results showed that 73.6% of WhMDs were unsecured during transit. Complete use of all four tiedowns was observed more frequently for manual wheelchairs (14.9%) and power wheelchairs (5.5%), compared to scooters (0.0%), and this difference was significant (p=0.013). Nonuse or misuse (lap belt use only) of the occupant restraint system occurred during 47.5% of WhMD trips. The most frequently observed (52.5%) use of the lap belt consisted of bus operators routing the lap belt around the WhMD seatback in an attempt to secure the WhMD. These findings support the need for development and implementation of WTORS with improved usability and/or WTORS that can be operated independently by WhMD passengers and improved WTORS training for bus operators.