WASHINGTON - Lobbyists for the motorcoach industry are trying to head off legislation in the U.S. Senate that would require all motorcoach companies to install seatbelts in all of their buses.

The draconian Senate bill was introduced 11 months ago but had been marking time until two deadly motorcoach crashes in August moved it onto the front burner. (See Sept. 1 Bus & Motorcoach News.)

A subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee conducted a hearing on the measure in mid-September and a representative of the coach industry told senators that operators could not afford the bills mandates, and that it made no sense to impose such a tough requirement on the industry without rigorous testing.

While the seatbelt requirement in the Senate bill is bad enough, the measure also would mandate additional safety technology, such as interior impact protection, rollover and stability control systems, flammability reduction, improved window glazing, collision avoidance equipment, and electronic onboard recorders. (See Dec. 1 Bus & Motorcoach News.)

Additionally, the bill would require the U.S. Department of Transportation to:

Inspect all bus operators and assign each a safety rating at least every three years.

Establish a training curriculum for drivers to be adopted by state and local governments. Any driver seeking a commercial drivers license would need to attend a training program with one of the approved curricula.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is a co-sponsor of the legislation and has been pushing it. She says the safety improvements her bill would mandate, especially seatbelts, are sensible and already required in Europe and Australia.

"You can't tell me that putting seatbelts on a bus are too costly," Hutchison said. "We are not asking for business-breaking safety enhancements."

Both the United Motorcoach and American Bus associations are working to head off the Hutchinson bill, which is being co-sponsored by Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat.

An article in the Dallas Morning News, published the same day as the Senate hearing, practically accused the two bus associations of trying to buy votes of U.S. House members who are sponsoring a separate House bill the industry generally favors.

The article noted that the ABAs Political Action Committee had sent two $1,000 checks to the sponsor of the House measure, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., and UMAs PAC had sent a $1,000 check to Shuster.

ABAs PAC also sent a $1,000 check to a Democratic House member, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, who two weeks after getting the money signed on as a co-sponsor of the House bill.

One way to slow down any legislation is to introduce a competing bill in the other House of Congress.

At the hearing last month of a Senate commerce subcommittee, representatives from federal transportation safety agencies voiced support for aspects of the Hutchinson-Brown legislation, saying the Bush administration was moving ahead with implementing some of the provisions.

"Certainly more needs to be done in terms of oversight," said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. He said his agency supports improving safety standards, including barring cell phone use by drivers and strengthening motorcoach roofs.

John Hill, the administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, noted his agency had stepped up its inspections of buses.

The driver in one of the August crashes -- that spurred the Senate hearing -- had been cited for numerous deficiencies, Hill said.

David Kelly, the acting administrator of the National Highway Safety Administration, said his agency found in crash tests in December that injuries were more likely to be prevented when seatbelts are used.

But Peter Pantuso, the president of the ABA and testifying on behalf of the coach industry, said more testing should be done before seatbelts are required. The industry, he said, could not afford them.

"One cannot rush safety research, and one must look at all the evidence," Pantuso said. "We are an industry composed of small businesses, and the imposition of a seatbelt mandate for every bus will be a heavy one. It will be impossible to fulfill without federal funds."

There was emotional testimony at the hearing from those related to crash victims, including Stephen Foreman, whose daughter, Allison, was hospitalized after a bus carrying her and her high school teammates crashed in Devers, Texas, in 2006.

"My message to parents is: These buses are unsafe, and we put our children on them over and over again," Foreman said. "As parents, we have got to stop this."

Melanie Brown, whose daughter, Ashley, was killed in the crash, said she was proud that Texas passed a law requiring all school buses to have seatbelts and hoped the federal government would follow for all motorcoaches.

"We can no longer express concern and do nothing," Brown said.