School buses carry the most important cargo of all — our children. And as such they should be as safe as possible. That’s why we are supporting efforts to require new school buses to be equipped with seat belts.

This is not a position we take lightly. It has been discussed for decades.

At one point, not all safety organizations agreed that seat belts would make buses significantly safer. But today they do.

As Daily Herald transportation writer Marni Pyke reported this week, the National Highway Safety Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, National Safety Council and the American Academy of Pediatrics all support seat belts on buses.

“Seat belts save lives,” said Mark Rosekind, administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which announced its support in 2015. “Every child on every school bus should have a three-point seat belt.”

The Itasca-based National Safety Council followed suit this past summer, saying seat belts add an extra layer of protection, particularly in rollover and side-impact crashes.

In 2014, in Anaheim, California, a school bus careened down an embankment and hit a light post and trees after the driver lost consciousness. NTSB officials say seat belts saved lives and serious injuries in that case.

State Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, intends to introduce legislation in Springfield requiring all new, large buses have seat belts just like smaller buses are already required to have.

And at the federal level, Democrat Tammy Duckworth, the state’s newly elected senator, plans to do the same. Currently, six states require seat belts, according to the safety council.

“Our country shouldn’t still be sending children to school in new buses that don’t have this lifesaving equipment,” Duckworth said in a statement earlier this week.

While most acknowledge that school buses already are extremely safe, seat belts make them even safer. Concerns about cost or unproven fears that belts could hinder evacuations should not outweigh the benefits.

“The overriding concern should be children’s safely,” said David Druker, a spokesman for Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.

The latest legislative push for belts follows a Tennessee crash Nov. 21 in which six students died and at least 20 were injured when the bus driver sped into a tree.

“Recent fatal accidents are a tragic reminder that we must do more to ensure all children buckle up when traveling, whether in a passenger car or a large school bus,” Duckworth said.