Majestic Transportation Products Announces Approval of Safe-T-Bar Pilot Program
16 March 1999
Majestic Transportation Products, Ltd., a Subsidiary of the Majestic Companies, Ltd. Announces Approval of First Safe-T-Bar Pilot Program
SAN DIEGO--March 16, 1999--Majestic Transportation Products, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Majestic Companies, Ltd. (OTC BB: MJXC) is pleased to announce that as of March 3, 1999 it's new school bus passenger restraint product: the Safe-T-Bar, has completed and passed the full complement of testing required under FMVSS 222 & 302 (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) and is ready for market roll-out. The test results were delivered to Majestic Transportation in a comprehensive fifty page report rendered by KARCO Engineering, a federally approved collision testing facility located in Adelanto, CA. Now that all federal compliance testing milestones for the Safe-T-Bar school bus passenger restraint have been met, the Company is moving quickly into the Pilot Program stage of this much anticipated new product on a state by state basis.The Company's first Pilot Program was approved on March 5, 1999 and will take place at Oceanside Unified School District, a medium sized school system located just north of Majestic's San Diego, CA headquarters. The installation of Safe-T-Bar bus passenger restraints will be performed by Majestic personnel and will be overseen by Majestic Transportation's President, Adrian Corbett. The actual installation has been scheduled to take place on or about the second week of April, 1999.
John Farr, Oceanside Unified's Director of Transportation, an early advocate for the product's apparent benefits over 2-point lap belt restraints in providing a safer school bus environment, helped pave the way for this product trial and concluded a July 15, 1998 letter to the Honorable Ron Packard (US Congress R, CA), with the following statement: "The Safe-T-Bar on School Buses is a great idea! It is a relatively inexpensive way to make the yellow school bus even safer than it already is. I envision all school buses having this feature as standard equipment in a few years."
In addition to coordinating installation, Majestic Transportation staff members will be on hand during the start-up phase of the program to brief Oceanside bus drivers on the mechanics as well as the ease in monitoring usage of the Safe-T-Bar restraint system. As part of the Pilot Program agreement, Oceanside Unified has agreed to grant Majestic Transportation media access to report on and follow up on the program's progress.
Glenn Gruber, Majestic Transportation's Marketing Director is currently in talks with transportation officials and/or legislators in the States of Minnesota, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, New Mexico and New York that have expressed interest in the Safe-T-Bar passenger restraint system. At this time, over 17 states have passed, or are in the process of passing, new legislation allowing for and in some instances requiring that school buses provide onboard passenger restraint systems. With momentum gathering for non-seat belt restraint solutions at both the grass roots and congressional level, a federal mandate requiring school buses to provide these systems is plausible in the not to distant future. Even without a federal mandate, individual states are starting to embrace these new solutions by instituting pilot programs and appropriating resources to retrofit their bus fleets with lap bar restraints.
The increasing momentum for Majestic Transportation's proactive Safe-T-Bar solution to the escalating school bus restraint issue was further evidenced last month at the State Capitol in Sacramento, CA when California Lawmaker, the Honorable Martin Gallegos granted Majestic Transportation's President, Adrian Corbett, an appointment to discuss the benefits of the Company's Safe-T-Bar restraint product vs. seatbelts. Gallegos is the lead State Assemblyman introducing a comprehensive Assembly Bill Proposal, AB 15, that recommends mandating seat belts on California's school buses. The purpose of Corbett's meeting was to provide Gallegos and his staff with background information regarding the Safe-T-Bar. Of great interest to Gallego's staff was the exhaustive testing endured by the Safe-T-Bar to date, including full FMVSS compliance, hundreds of hours of computer simulated crash testing using the latest analysis software, as well as in-house static and dynamic load testing to ensure the most effective product. Discussions centered on possible amendments to Assembly Bill No. 15 language by striking out the words "seatbelt assemblies" and replacing them with "a child restraint system that is in compliance with applicable federal standards". In closing the meeting, Keri Bailey, Assistant to Gallegos requested that Corbett might possibly testify on the Assembly Floor when the Bill comes to a vote in late April. After reviewing the many benefits of the Safe-T-Bar system, Gallegos's staff responded one week later by making 17 amendments to AB 15 that reflect the aforementioned changes. This language change opens the door for the Safe-T-Bar to be utilized in the event of a State mandate.
Majestic Transportation Products, Ltd., with its operations located in the San Diego, completed development of the "Safe-T-Bar" in January of this year. The Safe-T-Bar is a heavily padded U-shaped bar similar to the type of restraint systems most commonly found on amusement park rides. The Safe-T-Bar has one purpose to hold school bus occupants within the padded seating area (compartmentalization) during an accident. Many of the estimated 13,000 children hurt each year on school buses are ejected from this seating area resulting in serious injury. The Safe-T-Bar's patent pending locking mechanism is hidden within the seat back and operates on the same principal as the mechanism commonly found on standard passenger car seat belt retractors. During a sudden stop, collision, or bus rollover - etc, a small weighted pendulum swings and engages a latch, locking the Safe-T-Bar in the down position, thereby controlling and restraining the passenger within the padded seating area.
In order for a school bus safety restraint to be effective it must be used! Overall, utilization of seatbelts on school buses (to date, mandated in only two States - New York and New Jersey), have shown a very low use rate. Placing additional responsibility on the bus driver to enforce up to 85 children to not only buckle-up, but to correctly adjust their seat belt every time they sit down. This situation is a large part of the reason all school buses do not have seat belts as standard equipment today. In contrast, the Safe-T-Bar's use rate is virtually 100%. The rider lifts the bar, sits down, lowers the bar into position and the system is then ready to protect the rider, at any time, in only a fraction of a second.
For the aforementioned reasons, the overwhelming majority of the 1,000+ school transportation officials that attended this year's NAPT Conference in Austin, TX (National Association of Pupil Transportation) and personally witnessed the product in action, chose the SAFE-T-BAR as the hands down winner over seat belts to enhance school bus safety.
There are approximately 24,000,000 students using the "yellow school bus" to get to and from school each day, in the U.S. one would hope that every possible consideration has been made to ensure their safety. In fact, during the 1996-1997 school year alone, over 13,000 reported student injuries and 15 student deaths resulted from school bus accidents.
The cost to retrofit an existing school bus with lap belts can run well over $10,000 due to the cost of replacing existing bus seats with structurally enhanced seat belt ready seats. (seat belts would possibly need to be replaced every 2 to 3 years and are particularly susceptible to tampering and vandalism, thus raising the true lifetime cost).
Presently, there are over 440,000 school buses in service throughout the United States. Each year over 48,000 new school buses are produced. Generally, there are 4 bus size classifications: A, B, C and D. By federal law, the smaller bus sizes, type A and B, (8,000 each year) are mandated to provide standard seat belts. Bus types C and D are considered full size vehicles and are not federally mandated to provide seat belts for passengers. Type C buses contain 16 seats (48 passenger), and, type D buses contain 24 seats (72 passenger). The Safe-T-Bar is easily installed onto virtually all existing school bus seats in under 30 minutes. Of the 48,000 new school buses entering service annually around 40,000 of these are C and D type vehicles. Industry analysts predict the growth in new school bus orders will remain strong at around 2% to 4% annually for at least the next 10 years as student enrollment numbers continue to rise and district demographics continue to decentralize. Of the over 440,000 school buses currently in service nationwide, a potential market of 6.5 million restraint devices is available in the event of a federal mandate.
Majestic Transportation's Safe-T-Bar, at a proposed retail price point of $159.00 per bar (3 children/seat) represents a market value in excess of 1 billion dollars. The Majestic Companies, Ltd. has pursued international intellectual property rights protection and is negotiating manufacturing and distribution licenses, with primary emphasis on Canada and Europe.
Some of the statements in this press release may constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward looking statement.
Source: The Majestic Companies, Ltd. Direct Inquiries to Clayton Chase at: The Majestic Companies, Ltd. (619) 209-6077 www.themcl.com.
