The National School Transportation Association's prime concern is the safety of the children its members transport daily. In fact, the Association was founded - and continues - because they are able to get students to and from school in the safest possible manner. Traveling in today's well-equipped, shiny yellow bus is seven times safer than taking the same trip in the family automobile.

This is why NSTA supports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's position on occupant protection in school buses.

Our association is not so much opposed to the use of safety belts in school buses as it is supportive of the concept of compartmentalization. We came to this position after years of tests, experiments and studies resulted in the NHTSA concluding that compartmentalization provides an adequate level of safety protection. In contrast, there are no standards established for seat belts on large school buses.

NSTA believes that compartmentalization - containing children within a structurally reinforced passenger compartment of fully padded, high-back seats and crash barriers - is preferable to any form of containment that relies upon the use of safety belts or other similar restraining devices.

Furthermore, we believe that the studies and excellent safety record of school buses support compartmentalization. The real safety problems in school transportation - and those that need to be thoroughly addressed by the industry, schools, parents and the public - are the fatalities and injuries that occur where children get on and off the buses - the loading zones.

Those of us who work with the children and school buses every day feel that every new item that is added or changed on school buses should be well tested and engineered prior to being mandated as a regulation. This is why NSTA will continue to support the compartmentalization concept until documented research establishes that seat belts on school buses will raise the level of protection for the occupants.

NSTA is concerned that many interested and well-meaning individuals are not informed of the safety record of school buses, the safety features incorporated into school bus construction, and why seat belts are not mandated or needed on school buses. This is why the board of directors has approved a special edition of the National School Bus Report to address these topics.