CRYSTAL CITY, Va. - Motorcoach accidents undoubtedly could be reduced if everyone in the industry -- from operators, to inspectors, to regulators -- placed more emphasis on the men and women who drive the buses.

Thats the key conclusion of analysts who are wrapping up a detailed examination of data collected during a two-year "bus crash causation study" conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

FMCSA analysis division chief, William Bannister, who reported the preliminary study results at a Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance seminar here last month, said bus drivers were to blame for far more accidents than were mechanical problems on the buses they were driving.

"We see a definite need to focus on the drivers and driver-related issues," he stressed.

Bannister said the study still needs some fine turning but the final report on the findings could be ready in a few weeks.

The study targeted serious accidents in New Jersey, which was chosen because of the variety and volume of bus traffic in the state and its unusually high number of serious bus-related accidents.

The FMCSA initially projected it would get between 50 and 100 accidents to study in a single year. However, only 23 accidents were recorded during the year, too low to be statistically useful and resulting in the federal agency extending the study to a second full year.

In the end, only 39 serious accidents 26 of them involving motorcoaches and the others involving transit buses, school buses, small buses and large vans occurred during the two-year study period that ended in 2006.

Of the 39 accidents, 19 were found to be caused by bus driver errors or mechanical problems with the buses, while blame for the other 20 was attributed to other motorists, pedestrians or bicyclists.

Bannister noted that of the critical 19 accidents, bus drivers were directly to blame for 15 of them, mostly because of inadequate surveillance and inattention. Of the four accidents that were traced to problems with the buses, two were fires, one was a brake failure and the fourth was due to ice on the road, but was not considered a driving error.

He said some of the driver missteps did not rise to the level of traffic violations but were simply driver mistakes, such as looking away for a moment and either running off the road or hitting other vehicles.

Still, five of the 19 drivers were found to have out-of-service violations, including reckless operations, driving too fast for conditions and violating the hours-of-service rule. In contrast, none of the bus drivers who were involved in the 20 other accidents that were caused by other people committed out-of-service violations.

Bannister noted, too, that all but one of the drivers involved in the 19 accidents had prior driver violations on their records, including some for speeding, failing to obey traffic lights or signs, and improper passing or changing lanes. However, 16 of the bus drivers who were not at fault in their accidents also had traffic tickets on their records.

Although the drivers took the blame for most of the 19 accidents, five of the buses they were driving had out-of-service violations, including faulty brakes, maintenance issues and lighting, steering, suspension, frame, axle and windshield problems.

Other key findings from the study included:

Of the bus drivers involved in all of the accidents, 16 were between the ages of 50 and 59; eight were 60 to 69; eight were under the age of 40; six were between the ages of 40 and 49; and one was more than 69 years old.

While bus drivers were blamed for most of the 19 accidents, other motorists were found to be at fault in 16 of the 20 other accidents that were not attributed to the buses or the bus drivers. The other four were caused by pedestrians or bicyclists.

Most of the study findings, including the high percentage of accidents caused by drivers, were similar to those found in a large truck crash causation study the FMCSA did earlier in this decade on 963 crashes. The only exception was that there were no pedestrian accidents in the truck study.

Bannister said that while the small number of accidents included in the study prevents analysts from extending the statistics nationally, they still can make valid conclusions on a smaller level.

"It gives us something we can talk about and we can say that the bus driver is the key in most accidents," he noted.

To possibly reduce accidents, the study results suggest that state and federal motorcoach inspection programs be adjusted to focus more on drivers and less on buses, and possibly narrowing the bus inspections so they concentrate more on critical areas such as brakes.

Additionally, the study advocated that transportation regulators make sure the commercial drivers license system of reporting violations from state-to-state is working; more education and safety programs be developed; traffic enforcement be stepped up, and a program be developed that would rate drivers based on their abilities and driving history.

Bannister said the FMCSA also is working on a list of important safety tips for drivers and operators that it will put on its website, and that could help, too.