Panel gives grant for Alabama's school bus seat belt program

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Gov. Bob Riley's study group on school bus seat belts has awarded a grant for a pilot program to see if belts will make children safer on buses.

The group awarded nearly $316,000 to a University of Alabama center that will use the grant to buy 12 new buses equipped with seat belts. The pilot program will examine different strategies for enforcing and monitoring seat belt usage.

The study group announced in February that it had decided to recommend the pilot program, which they said would cost a total of $1.4 million over three years.

Riley appointed the panel after last year's Huntsville school bus crash that killed four Lee High School students.

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