When it comes to cars - we know seat belts save lives. But what about on school buses?

In August, dozens of Norris students were rushed to area hospitals after their school bus collided with a pick-up truck. While there were no serious injuries, the crash stirred up the debate that's been brewing across the nation for years. Should school buses have seat belts?

Currently there are only four states: New York, New Jersey, Florida and California that require seat belts on school buses weighing more than 10,000 pounds.

Here in Nebraska, the issue has been debated in the legislature three years in a row. Last year, the bill was stalled in committee - but the debate lingers on.

"When you send your children off on a school bus, you expect your kids to come home safe," said Tom Rief.

But that didn't happen.

Seven years ago, a school bus carrying the Seward marching band hit a guardrail and fell more than 60 feet. Brenda and Tom Rief's two sons were on that bus.

14-year-old Tait was severely injured. His brother, Luke, walked away from the crash.

"Luke heard the bus hit the guardrail and he braced, he spread his legs apart between the seats and grabbed the overhead racks and said he basically became his own seat belt and rode the fall out," Brenda said.

"He's fine and we think it's because he was able to hold himself in his seat and wasn't flying around the bus like Tait was," Tom said.

Three students and a parent died as a result of the crash. But transportation officials, like Bill McCoy with Lincoln Public Schools, says the school bus industry is still one of the safest out there.

"A school bus is nine times safer than a passenger vehicle," McCoy said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety administration says out of the 26 million students who ride the bus to school everyday, less than ten are killed in school bus crashes a year. But thousands are injured - up to 475 severely.

There's kids like Tait whose parents say putting seat belts on school buses is common sense.

"We have seat belts; you don't take your baby home from the hospital unless they are in a proper, appropriate car seat - and so why do we send our kids off on their first day of kindergarten in a school bus that they can't be belted into that just seems crazy," said Brenda.

At the heart of the seat belt debate is a concept called compartmentalization. According to federal transportation officials, school buses are now designed to have higher, wider and thicker backs with extra energy absorbing padding and materials. The seats are also closer together providing a cocoon like atmosphere which the government says can protect kids in the event of a crash.

"It looks like it should be safe and it probably is safe on a front end collision or rear-end collision, but from the side or a rollover - the high backseats and the padding on the seats doesn't make much difference when you're flying around a bus," Tom said.

School districts have other concerns - like cost.

"We estimate that for a large school bus it would cost about an additional 7-10 thousand dollars to equip that bus with lap-shoulder belts," said McCoy.

"It's a lot of money but one injury like Tait's he has probably already had 1 to 1.5 million in medical expenses - so there's a cost there also," said Tom. "If that would have been prevented that sure would have paid for a lot of seat belts. "

"The first three years of therapy were real hard," said Tait.

Tait has come along way but his brain injuries are so severe he usually can't remember what happened the day before. His parents say if one life or injury is spared by adding seat belts to school buses - it's worth it.

The government's still waiting to determine if it is. But we could have an answer from the government soon. It's waiting for results of a three year study being done by the University of Alabama that's expected to shed some light on the effectiveness on seat belts on school buses.