A MUM whose 11-year-old son was involved in a school bus crash has called for the government to change the law on seatbelts in school transport.

Diane Elsmore received a worrying text from her son Ben on November 11 to say he would be late after the school bus taking pupils home from Malborough School in Woodcote was involved in a crash with another bus and car.

Angered that none of the children were wearing seatbelts Miss Elsmore, who lives in Kirtlington, is urging the government to re-think its legislation.

She said: “It is just ridiculous.

“It is illegal if you take your family out in car without seatbelts so why is it legal for a bus, which takes up to 40 children to and from school every day, to not have mandatory seatbelts?

“Fortunately no one was seriously hurt but I think four children had to go to hospital.

“I’ve started the petition to put some pressure on the government because this law needs to change.”

In 2014, Wales changed its law and made it mandatory for all school transport to have seatbelts and in Scotland it is thought similar changes will be adopted by 2018.

She added: “Ben will still be in school when he is 18.

“I hope that from now until the time he leaves the law will have changed and seatbelts will become compulsory.

“Or at the very least this petition will have started the process in getting the law changed.”

Miss Elsmore said current laws leave it to the discretion of local councils to insist on seatbelts on school transport.

Owen Morton, a spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council, said: “The safety of children on our roads is paramount, and the vast majority of vehicles carrying out school transport journeys in Oxfordshire are coaches fitted with seatbelts.

“A small minority are ‘traditional’ buses designed for standing as well as seated passengers, and fitted with a tachograph to monitor speed.

“If these vehicles are unsafe for home-to-school transport, they are also unsafe for general public use, and it would be for the Government, not local councils, to make a judgement of this nature.

“The Department of Transport is technically correct to say that councils could, should they wish, insist on a ‘seatbelts only’ policy when contracting providers to deliver school transport services, but this would not cover the many thousands of children up and down the country travelling to school with free bus passes on the public network.”

Miss Elsmore’s petition currently has 364 signatures. To sign it visit: http://bit.ly/2h1O7b2