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Tuesday, November 10, 2026Nov 10

Tennessee Senate panel approves school bus seat belt bill; now moves to Finance Committee

NASHVILLE – Legislation spurred by a 2016 Chattanooga school bus crash that killed six children passed the Tennessee Senate Education Committee today with seven senators saying yes and one colleague passing.

The bill now goes on to the Finance Committee.

On Tuesday, the House Transportation Committee approved the bill on a 9-7 vote, moving it along.

photo Tennessee state Rep. JoAnne Favors visited the Times Free Press for a meeting with the editorial board at the newspaper’s offices on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, in Chattanooga.
photo 5th grader Canasia Williams, who survived last year’s deadly Woodmore Elementary School bus crash, hugs her grandmother, Selbrea Rhodes, Tuesday after mandatory bus seat-belt bill clears House panel.

The Senate version is sponsored by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga. Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga, the House sponsor, testified in today’s Senate panel meeting.

Favors and Gardenhire introduced the bill after the Nov. 21 deadly Woodmore Elementary School bus crash that killed six children and injured others.