PRINCE.EDWARD.ISLAND (CBC) - The P.E.I. government is trying to catch up with safety features discovered on new school buses quickly pressed into service earlier this week.

The 24 school buses, delivered in early May, were not supposed to be on the road until the fall. But corrosion problems discovered in 55 older buses meant the buses had to be rushed into service on Monday.

On Thursday, the government noticed the front two rows on the buses had hidden child safety seats. The seats fold out from the back of the benches, creating a raised seat and revealing a child restraint harness.

While examining the buses with CBC News, Transportation Minister Ron MacKinley said he would have to discuss with his departmental officials about how the safety seats should be used.

The seats are mandated by new federal regulations, which say all school buses built after 2006 must have them. The seats are for children weighing less than 18 kilograms, and John MacDonald of the highway safety division of the Department of Transportation said provincial regulations require that they be used.

"On P.E.I., it is the law. If there is a seatbelt, a child safety system assembly, that is available, then it is required to be utilized," said MacDonald.

"The Department of Education ... will have to organize and plan so that these seats will be in use for qualified children."

Seats mostly for pre-schoolers

The seats are designed for smaller children, and deputy minister of education Shauna Sullivan Curley said few school-age children will need them.

"We do have some kindergarten children who are travelling on school buses," said Sullivan Curley.

"Parents in the end will have to identify, yes, I have a child of that weight, and they'll confirm that that's the case, and then work with the school board and sort out the things, like training the child to use the restraint properly and assigning a seat to the child so that the child is always in his or her own seat on the bus."

There are no seatbelts past the first two rows of the new buses. In the other rows, the seat backs are designed with energy-absorbing padding, with the seats placed close together and well-anchored to the floor. It's called compartmentalization, and it is the method favoured by Transport Canada for protecting school bus occupants in the event of an accident.

School bus accidents are very rare, and Transport Canada says it's 16 times safer to travel in a bus than in the family car. When children are injured in an accident, it is usually outside the school bus.

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