Thanks to Mrs Staniford’s tireless campaigning over the past 22 years, the NSW Government has committed to installing seat belts on all South Coast buses. 

The $29 million spend will see all school buses fitted with seat belts by December 2021.

Mrs Staniford said she was “ecstatic” after hearing the announcement. 

“I was in disbelief at first. I rang the minister's office to clarify if it was true and they said yes,” she said. 

“You can’t have these things instantly. As long as they have a program to be putting them on and there is an end date, then I am happy.”

Although her kids are now adults, Mrs Staniford said someone’s child was “still in danger” when catching a school bus without seat belts. 

“It is all about children’s safety,” she said. 

“My kids have finished uni now but it is still the same story, it is someone's kid on a bus that is in danger.

“I don’t really feel proud of myself, I will just be pleased when there is a crash and all the kids walk off the bus unharmed.

“All these children are losing front teeth or getting stitches or bruising, and they will remember that for their whole life. Children should not have to be traumatised in any way by something that is preventable, like a seat belt.”

The Belt Up for Safety Action Group was founded by Mrs Staniford and other parents in 2001, following a bus crash on the Princes Highway, near Ulladulla, that killed a 15-year-old St John’s Anglican School, Nowra, student on his way home to Mollymook. 

Several others students were injured in the crash. 

“I know on this particular road on the Princes Highway, travelling 100 kilometres per hour in all this traffic, which increases every year, there is a huge risk if there is a crash,” Mrs Staniford said. 

“It may not even be a crash, it could be a medical incident by the bus driver and the bus runs off the road, but those children need seat belts to save them in all these scenarios.”

Enforcing students to wear seat belts on buses should not be the driver’s responsibility, Mrs Staniford said. 

She said parents and teachers should keep “regularly ensuring” students are wearing their belts. 

“I don’t want it to be the bus driver's responsibility to ensure children use the seat belts. I want them to concentrate on the road,” Mrs Staniford said.

“Kids now are so used to not wearing a seat belt that it will be hard and there will be a transition period. 

“Once the five years olds that are wearing the seat belts on the bus becomes high schoolers, they will just get in and clip up. Just like they do in cars.”

“If there is a child that is in a crash that didn’t have a seat belt on, well I can’t stop that but at least it is there if they want it.

“I would say, in five years we will have 99.9 per cent compliance.”

Mrs Staniford thanked South Coast MP Shelley Hancock for supporting the cause. 

“She has backed this cause from the start,” she said.

“She pushed for it when she was in opposition and was very vocal.

“She has been so supportive.”

Campaigning was not finished for Mrs Staniford, who said there were still NSW routes that would not have seat belts. 

“There are a few routes that still need belts,” she said.

“I am told they will be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

“If there is someone whose kid catches a bus in a 100kph route in what is regarded at a metro area, like the Illawarra, they can apply to Transport NSW to have that bus fitted with seat belts.”