A SERIOUS bus crash at Maiden Gully on Saturday has renewed calls for seat belts to be mandatory on buses.It’s unclear whether 13 women on board the bus that rolled on Saturday were wearing seat belts or whether the bus was fitted with restraints.Leon Hain has been involved in seat belt campaigns for more than 25 years and said it was hypocritical for the government to celebrate 40 years of mandatory seat belts in cars when buses were still missing out. “The law says everyone shall have and wear a seat belt where available... but all buses have them,” he said. “In Victoria 75,000 schoolchildren travel on country buses travelling up to 100kmh – for goodness sake, make them mandatory.”Mr Hain said legislation introduced in December 1992 made it compulsory for buses built from 1995 to be fitted with seat belt restraints.The bus involved in Saturday’s crash was a 1996 model.But Mr Hain said Australian Design Rules relating to bus seat belt requirements had been misinterpreted by the government.He said suburban buses were exempt from seat belt requirements because of lower speed limits and shorter travelling distances, but the state government had bought 1400 suburban buses to be used on country routes.“All it needs, when parliament resits, is five minutes for one of the party leaders to say ‘we need an amendment to the wording of the legislation’,” he said.“It just needs to be for the exemption to be on suburban buses remaining in the city and urban areas, and not apply to country bus routes.”Bendigo highway patrol Sergeant Peter Beaman said seat belts “generally do assist” in accidents.A spokesman for Transport Minister Martin Pakula said it was mandatory for passengers over the age of 16 to wear seat belts on buses where fitted.“It is the individual occupant’s responsibility to ensure they are wearing the seat belt, not that of the bus driver,” he said.“Route buses do not require seat belts for passengers under the Australian Design Rules. ‘‘These buses generally travel at lower speeds than long-distance coaches.”