ORLANDO, Fla. Anyone who attends UMA Motorcoach Expo once every two or three years must have been stunned when they walked the exhibit floor here last month.

Even some who attend every year were surprised by what they saw. Everywhere there were seatbelts.

New motorcoaches outfitted with belted seats.

New midsize buses with seatbelts.

New Sprinter vans with seatbelts.

Virtually every "big bus" coach builder had a new model with standard two- or three-point seatbelts.

At the ABC stand there was the monstrous TD925 double-decker with 80+ seats, all with seatbelts.

At the Prevost stand there was the brand new Volvo 9700 with Amaya three-point belted seats -- standard.

At the BCI stand there were new Falcons with standard leather seats, sporting seatbelts.

At the Daimler Buses of North America booth there was a Sprinter with optional leather seats ... and seatbelts. On the other side of the Daimler stand was a new Setra S 417 that, starting this month, will have lap seatbelts as standard equipment.

Elsewhere on the show floor there were both familiar and new bus seat manufacturers, featuring their latest model passenger seats many with seatbelts.

As recently as three years ago, few in the industry would have imagined such a thing.

But a high-profile bus crash in Atlanta two years ago, another in Texas three years ago, a trio of "seatbelt bills" in Congress, and the first-ever series of bus crash tests conducted by the federal government has changed all that.

Now, the industry seemingly is racing pell-mell to embrace seatbelts even though the federal government has yet to develop standards for seatbelts on motorcoaches in the U.S.

That fact alone amazes many long-time industry safety experts.

Thus far, federal safety administrators havent officially announced the likelihood theyll be issuing revised standards for the over-the-road bus industry that include seatbelts, or what standard they might adopt for belted seats.

Still, most industry safety experts believe a seatbelt requirement is coming and it will have standards.

Prevost Car evidentially thinks thats true because it announced at Motorcoach Expo its new H-series coaches are now equipped with a welded rail system that can accommodate any kind of seat installation, up to a 20G standard.

Meanwhile, the deliberate pace of safety bureaucrats isnt slowing operators, coach builders and seat manufacturers from rushing ahead and plopping belted seats in new coaches.

Much of the demand for seatbelts, say coach operators, is coming from customers. Some operators report that, with greater frequency, when customers call they ask if coaches are equipped with seatbelts.

"In recent years, customer demand for seatbelts in motorcoaches has risen dramatically," said Tom Chezem, vice president of motorcoach sales for Daimler Buses North America. "We are fortunate we are able to leverage our Setra and Mercedes-Benz resources in Europe to take advantage of seatbelt testing that has already taken place."

David Oldridge, chief engineer for BCI, echoed Chezem, saying operators are starting to want restraints on their coaches mostly in response to their charter-and-tour customers who are asking for them. Oldridge says BCI is happy to accommodate.

"All of that talk in the industry that they are too expensive and wont work well is just hogwash." Oldridge says the cost of a coach goes up by about $1,100 for lap belts and $2,000 for three-point belts.

Dan Eisentrager of Coach America said two of that companys large corporate customers in Wyoming Rio Tinto Energy America and Powder River Coal insisted that three-point seatbelts be installed in 24 new MCI D4505s Coach America was ordering for shuttles it operates for the coal mining companies.

"Safety is paramount at (Rio Tinto Energy America)," said Rio Tinto Vice President of Operations Gary Rivenes. "We continuously evaluate employee risks and ways to reduce or eliminate those risks.

"The finalized arrangement for these special buses culminates a three-year extensive effort by (Rio Tinto) to provide buses equipped with three-point passenger seatbelts to ensure greater travel safety for our employees."

Kobussen Buses Trailways in Kaukauna, Wis., is buying four new MCI J4500s with three-point seatbelts. "We think seatbelts are going to be a standard part of the future coach," said Dan Kobussen.

Another Kobussen executive said at Motorcoach Expo the company is convinced seatbelts installed in new coaches today will essentially pay for themselves when those coaches are resold or traded in the future.

Their thinking: Used, seatbelt-equipped coaches will command a premium price in the future when seatbelts are mandatory.

Other operators may be reaching the same conclusion, but many worry about another aspect of the seatbelt story: the transition period. Theyre concerned about customer reaction when they send three or four coaches out for a charter move and only two of the vehicles have seatbelts.

Unlike coaches equipped with WiFi or high-end entertainment systems that can be sold at a premium, operators may not get a warm reception if they try to sell coaches with seatbelts at a higher price than those without belts.

"Like the airlines, motorcoach industry safety should be a given," said one industry veteran.