By Dave Millhouser

It was a convoy. Two Brills and an Aerocoach chugged west on the Colorado prairie, blindly following the leaders "short cut."

Approaching a construction zone, the leader wasnt able to slow in time to avoid the flagger working the two-lane highway.

Buses of this vintage had "virtual" brakes that only gave the illusion of stopping. He veered right, onto the prairie, swung left to parallel the road and slowed enough to regain the pavement -- a terrifying quarter mile later.

One by one, the convoy followed suit. Like Peabody ducks, they waddled across the Great Plains in search of the asphalt they shouldnt have left.

Some dangers are inherent in going with the flow.

Its not clear our industry is having more accidents than in the past, but with a 24-hour, TV news cycle almost every coach incident gets attention.

Historically, buses have depended on compartmentalization for passenger protection in crashes. That works in certain situations, but may have become less effective as windows have grown.

Two different approaches are currently marching through Congress that address bus safety and it behooves us to be involved.

Seatbelts have been effective in saving lives in auto, truck and aircraft accidents, so theres a major push by some to have them installed on coaches. They should certainly be considered as part of new safety legislation, but they arent a panacea, nor without problems.

Some operators are now specifying seatbelts on new coaches in an effort to stay ahead of the curve and/or promote safety. Along with these devices come considerations critical in our litigious society.

Some passengers invariably will not buckle up and, in an accident, could become missiles that hurt belted people. New technology is available that helps in those cases, but who becomes responsible for injuries caused by the flying folks?

Airlines mitigate the problem by having flight attendants force the issue, but can we afford that?

In some accidents customers may be tangled in the belts, how do we extricate them? What equipment should be on board?

Belts need to be inspected and maintained. How will we handle broken buckles? Airlines shut down that seat, a painful policy on a full charter bus.

Once you have belted buses in your fleet, how do you market them? Are all your older coaches suddenly "unsafe?"

When seatbelts are touted in charter sales, there is the implication that theres a safety problem with other buses, nasty if there is an injury later on.

If the time comes when all new vehicles have seatbelts, what happens to the residual value of every coach in the land? Buses are expensive and durable.

Most successful financial models of our industry assume high resale value over a long period. We cant scrap them, and were going to find it hard to sell them if we let them be perceived as unsafe.

Some companies are retro-fitting buses with belted seats, and there are times when this makes sense. As usual, though, there are a couple of caveats.

A set of seats costs as much as a new engine. With that much money at stake, at what point is a coach not worth the effort? When a coach isnt worth retrofitting, are you assuming huge liability by operating it? Will insurance companies get antsy?

There also may be questions as to strength of seat mounting hardware on older buses. If the coach wasnt built with belted seats in mind, and the "stuff" has aged, you could be at risk in an accident.

Significant differences exist between two- and three-point belts that merit thought, whether installed in new, or used, buses.

Having once again raised questions I cant answer (its my gift), here are few things worth considering.

The elephant standing unnoticed in the room is that we ARE safe. Sure we can do better but no other form of transportation beats us. We need to present improvements carefully. "Damned if you do, damned if you dont" comes to mind.

Driver training is growing increasingly critical. Belts are only important in a crash, so prevention remains crucial.

Seatbelts, and other safety features of the coach, are only useful when drivers and passengers know how to use them. Quality pre-trip briefings are a must.

Finally, we need to push Congress to adopt thoughtful regulations that protect our customers in a comprehensive way. Those designs should follow studies that evaluate their effectiveness in as many types of accidents as possible.

Properly designed seatbelts and compartmentalization may well be part of the solution. When manufacturers and operators comply with carefully researched safety regulations, they should be protected from related lawsuits.

We need to keep our heads up, or we may end up following each other across the prairie -- maybe even a minefield. Like an old bus, once we get going in a direction itll be hard to stop.

Dave Millhouser is a bus industry marketing consultant and freelance writer. Contact him at: dave_millhouser@hotmail.com.