CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY, Mo. Because a small rural school district here assigns seats to the children who ride its school buses, a crash proved to be less scary than it might have been.

The incident occurred when a car crossed the center line on State Highway 177 and crashed head on into a Nell Holcomb R-IV School District bus.

The crash sent 15 students to the hospital with injuries. The driver of the auto had serious injuries.

What helped crash investigators keep track of all those involved in the crash was a simple seating chart. The bus had labeled each seat on the bus with the childrens names.

That made the job of identifying each student much easier for crash investigators.

"As our investigators got there . . . and started working the scene, we noticed that on the inside of the bus that the bus driver had names of all the students and where they were to be seated in the bus," said Sgt. Dale Moreland of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. "That was my first time in all my years to see that on a bus."

He says the chart really helped in identifying the students after they had left the scene.

"We were immediately able to identify where those children were located on the bus and have those names immediately," Moreland said. "Of course you have to go to school to follow up and get the addresses and so forth, but it immediately gave us the names of all the children that were actually riding on the bus."

Moreland says he thinks it may be a good idea for school districts to put riders names on the bus seat. After all, children sit in assigned seats once they get to school.

"Normally, I think as a practice they're seated kind of the way they're picked up and children have their choices. But, for safety reasons, it would make sense to seat them together," Moreland said. "Smaller children together, large children together. That would help prevent injuries in a crash."

Nell Holcomb Schools Superintendent Darryl Pannier said his district implemented the assigned seating arrangement on all five of its elementary school buses three years ago. It also generally seats the smaller children together and larger children together.