(Radio Iowa) The State Board of Education gave preliminary approval today (Thursday) to a change in state rules that would require seatbelts to be installed in all new school buses. Department of Education transportation director, Max Christensen, told the board the National Transportation Safety Board recommended last may that lap-shoulder belts should be required.

“Currently school districts are allowed to order buses with lap-shoulderbelts if they so desire — but it’s not a current requirement here in Iowa. There are eight states in all new school buses,” Christensen says. He says they have a group that reviews proposed changes, and they unanimously voted in favor of requiring the belts. Some schools are already requesting them when they get new buses.

“We do have I believe 16 districts in the state that are ordering all of their new buses with lap-shoulderbelts. And in conversations with them, they are very, very pleased with those lap-shoulderbelts,” Christensen says. Christensen says those districts have found a side benefit to the lap belts along with the safe travel.

“For one thing, it reduces the student discipline problem on schools buses by about 80 percent,” according to Christensen. “So that alone is certainly worth looking at.” Information presented to the board shows the lap-shoulder belts cost around 123 dollars each, and that would add about 84-hundred dollars to the cost of an average new school bus.

Christensen says that breaks down to about four-and-a-half cents a day for each student on a bus. There has long been a debate about adding the lap-shoulder belts to school buses — with the thinking that it made it more difficult to get kids out of the bus in an emergency. Christensen says the thought process has changed.

)”If you look at especially school buses that maybe roll over — probably you’ve all seen the videos on tv that shows the kids inside the school bus — it’s like clothes inside a dryer, around and around they go. Consequently they are going to be injured,” Christensen says. “The current thinking is that it is better to have kids in seatbelts that aren’t injured trying to get them out — than it is to have kids who are injured and trying to get them out.”

Christensen says another factor is kids now have grown up with seatbelts and are very familiar with their use and how to get out of them. The Board of Education voted to move ahead with the change and there will now be a public hearing on the proposal June 25th at 10:00 a-m at the board office in Des Moines. You can also send the board written comments and those and the comments at the hearing will be considered when the board takes final vote on the issue.

A man from Newton, Kansas ignored a Road Closed barricade sign Wednesday evening in Mills County, and ended up with his vehicle in the water. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports 35-year old Samitrio Sanchez was westbound on Jesup Avenue from the City of Pacific Junction, when he drove a 2004 Hyundai around the barricade at around 5:15-p.m..

Officials say there were corn stalks washed onto the roadway, and water surrounding the road. Sanchez continued driving west on Jesup Avenue until he drove into a washout just before the bridge. His vehicle came to rest nose first in the water.

The man refused medical treatment and was issued a citation for Failure to Obey a Traffic Control Device.

Two people from Shenandoah were arrested on drug charges, Monday evening. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday (today), that 26-year old Shelby Lynn Ross and 37-year old Dustin Eugen Kalkas were taken into custody at around 7:25-p.m. following a traffic stop on Highway 275. Both face charges that include Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Ross was additionally charged with two counts Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drugs, and Providing False ID information. She was also wanted on a warrant out of Fremont County for Violation of Probation. Bond was set at $5,000. Kalkas was charged with Speeding and Failure to provide proof of insurance. His bond was set at $1,300.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports also, 31-year old Nashae Amberly Nothwehr, of Clarinda, was arrested today (Thursday) for OWI/1st offense, with bond set at $1,000. 37-year old Sherice Nicole Dismang, of Omaha, was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail on a Mills County warrant for Probation Violation. Her bond was set at $10,000.

On Tuesday, 18-year old Dalton Alexander Bedsole, of Emerson, was arrested for Criminal Mischief in the 3rd degree, and trespassing. (Bond $3,000). 30-year old Joshua Jon Lebuagh, of Glenwood, was arrested for Driving Under Suspension. (Bond $300).

And on Monday, 54-year old Jeffrey Allen Fink, of Silver City, was arrested for Driving While Denied or revoked. (Bond $1,000)