MORRISVILLE - The nation's top transportation official wants more students buckled up while riding school buses, but the numbers show children are already safer on the bus than off.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters promised Monday that federal highway safety dollars would be freed for school districts that want to install seat belts on school buses.

But statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show an average of 19 children are killed each year getting on and off the school bus. Most of those killed are children between 5 and 7 years old. The statistics show that most of those children are killed by a passing vehicle or by the school bus itself. And statistics show that the majority of the injuries occur to passengers in other vehicles.

In contrast, an average of seven schoolchildren nationwide die in school bus crashes each year.

"We see more fatalities outside the bus," said Derek Graham, section chief for the state Department of Public Instruction's Transportation Services. "But more parents expect their children to be buckled on a bus."

Many parents worry about their children's safety at the bus stop or exiting the vehicle to walk home. "The major concern lies while they're waiting or getting off the bus," said parent Michele Malik, whose two children ride the bus, one to an elementary school, the other to a magnet middle school. "But I do put safety belts at a close second."

Peters, who rode a bus equipped with seat belts Monday morning at Morrisville Elementary School, said adding seat belts would increase children's safety on school buses. State transportation officials have been experimenting with seat belts on buses used at that Wake County school.

Peters said proposed regulations from her agency also would require higher seat backs for new school buses, mandate seat belts on smaller buses and set a federal standard for states that opt to install seat belts on school buses. She promised states could use federal highway safety money typically used for road improvements to offset the cost of installing school bus seat belts. This safety improvement would add $10,000 to the cost of each bus.

Granville collision

Peters' announcement came just a few hours after a Granville County bus collided head-on with a car, seriously injuring both passengers in the car.

Granville County school spokeswoman Jan Allen said the school bus, which had high-back seats, was damaged significantly on the outside. But inside, three children were injured, none seriously -- one with a split lip, another with a swollen nose and a third with a cut above the eye.

"The bus performed well and protected the children," Allen said. "The seats were high, and each kid was contained in their little box."

Although Peters encouraged districts to opt for installing seat belts, the proposed regulation will not require districts to install seat belts. It will leave the decision to each state.

"Each state knows best where they can spend the money," Peters said. "I truly believe that this is a safety improvement that school districts ought to look at seriously."

The proposed federal regulation would require that seat backs on school buses be raised from 20 inches to 24 inches, protecting taller passengers from being thrown over seats in wrecks. This change could take effect as early as next year.

More than 1,300 school buses -- out of 14,000 buses in North Carolina -- currently have higher seat backs. And 14 in the state already have seat belts installed.

It could cost the state about $8.6 million to equip new buses with seat belts.

All smaller buses, which are typically used by day care centers and taken on small field trips, would be required to have three- point belts within three years of the new rule. Currently, only lap belts are required.

But there is some concern among school districts about the cost of adding seat belts and a loss of capacity. Large school buses hold about 71 students. Adding the seat belts could reduce that to about 59, meaning districts would have to buy more buses. School buses are projected to cost about $75,000 each next year.

"The biggest concern was the loss of capacity on the buses and how many buses it would take to operate," said Billy Sugg, transportation director for Johnston County.

Adding seat belts to school buses has been debated for several years in North Carolina. A bill a few years back that would have required seat belts on school buses died because no money was appropriated for the program.

Public comments on the proposed regulations will be accepted for 60 days. To view the proposal, go to www.nhtsa.dot.gov.

(Staff writer Marti Maguire and news researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)